Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
The perfect homemade gift already exists in your pantry – some assembly required 😉 15 minutes your gift can be ready to present. Make a Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix in a Jar. It is a unique, thoughtful homemade gift that will touch the hearts and stomachs of your loved ones.
The gift is a beautifully presented, homemade cookie, brownie or hot cocoa mix. Put your favorite recipe’s (or mine below) dry ingredients in a canning jar, add a personal card with directions on how to bake it, and decorate with ribbon. Voila! A gift that is sure to be enjoyed at the time of gifting and also again when they bake up the recipe to enjoy the tastes, aromas and love in a special treat to enjoy made easily and fresh from the oven.
Gift giving ideas – everyone loves a cookie mix
The perfect homemade gift as a housewarming gift, Christmas gift, hostess gift, touching Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift, birthday gift, off-to-college gift and many more occasions. Consider making Cookie Mix in a Jar in a large batch for holiday gifting to multiple people – friends, neighbors, co-workers, family. Or for a wedding gift, housewarming gift or off-to-college gift, perhaps give useful kitchen pans or cooking implements along with a gift mix(es) to beautifully finish-off the gift with that personal touch. What could be better!
Use a gift mix as a fundraiser – popular pantry item
The homemade brownie mix (above) was made by an amazing woman Chelsea, who makes large batches of brownie and cookie mixes each year to fundraise for Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation (PKD Foundation). An extremely popular item for everyone who knows her or knows of her. Consider making a large batch of these gift mixes for fundraising efforts or for all the people on your gift list during the holidays. You don’t want anyone to feel left out from receiving one of these charming, homemade gifts. If you do use this recipe idea, consider supporting the PKD Foundation with a donation for a cure of this deadly disease, and let your gift recipient know that a donation was made in their name. (The PKD Foundation link is anywhere on this page where PKD Foundation is mentioned … and thank you for your support).
Present the Gift Mix beautifully
To make the most of the presentation of your homemade gift mix, make sure to:
- Use a clear container
- Showcase the ingredients by putting them in layers
- Decorate with a ribbon
- Attach a card with the baking instructions
- Share your favorite recipe, or use one of mine (below)
Use a clear container
Showing the ingredients of your cookie recipe in the gift mix make it extra special, so if you can, use a clear container. This a homemade gift, so using canning jars which harken to homemade goodies are a natural fit. They are also reusable and useful over and over again for the receiver of the gift as well, for all sorts of storage solutions. You will get a good tray bake or standard batch of cookies in a 32 oz jar. Of course, you can use any airtight container you may have on-hand or buy one that matches a set that your gift recipient may already be collecting.
Showcase the ingredients by putting them in layers
For a mouthwatering impact, layer your ingredients in the jar. Put different colored layers next to each other to emphasize the contrast. In the brownie mix Chelsea made above, you can see the flour layer at the bottom, the dark cocoa powder on top of that, sugar resting on the cocoa and chocolate chips on top. Striking!
Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes make especially tempting mixes in glass jars, as people can delight in seeing the chocolate chips and brown sugar as a contrast to the flour.
Since you will be measuring out your ingredients anyway, plan to measure them out in the color order you want, putting the ingredient directly into the jar. Make sure to make those especially tempting ingredients, such as cocoa and marshmallows for a cocoa mix, easy to see. Keep it quick and easy to prepare, and consider making multiples at the same time to always have a great gift on-hand in your pantry.
Decorate with a ribbon
A flourish of elegance or cuteness is always welcome. But tying a ribbon around the jar lid is not only a beautiful touch, it is also functional. You can attach the baking instructions to the ribbon, so it easily stays with the mix in the gift recipient’s pantry.
Attach a card with the baking instructions
First of all, you should only include the dry, self-stable ingredients in this gift mix. This will make sure that the homemade gift mix stays fresh in their pantry and is ready to put together today or three months from now, whenever the recipient is ready to enjoy them.
Since you are including only the dry ingredients, it means there will be other ingredients that the gift recipient will add to bake up the mix. Keep these to simple and standard pantry ingredients, such as eggs, oil, milk, water, etc. The recipes I provide below give advice on the directions that should be on the gift card so your gift recipient can bake up the cookie mix, brownie mix or hot cocoa mix quickly and easily.
Include cooking instructions on the attached card
There would be disappointment all around if the person went to bake the brownies or cookies or cook up the hot cocoa and then did not have the directions on how to complete the gift mix and have the treat. It may seem obvious, but it is a critical step to include:
- The ingredients that must be added to the mix
- The pan type and its preparation to cook the goodie
- Cooking temperature and time
- If you do include ingredients such as nuts or dry fruit in your mix, add the expiration date to your gift mix
- Any suggested finishing or serving tips
Personalize the gift mix card
Now is also your chance to personalize it. Some ideas are:
- Hand write a heartfelt message and sign the card
- Have a child draw a picture of the gift recipient
- For those of us with fur babies, a little paw print from our beloved doggie or kitty for a gift to another animal lover
- Print a picture of the gift recipient and lovely personal note to attach
- Write about a donation given in their name to a charity
Be creative and enjoy making the card. Below you see the card Chelsea made for her fundraiser for PKD Foundation. This also gives the wonderful reminder of the charitable donation made to those of us who bought one.
Share your favorite recipe, or use one of my easy peasy ones (below)
Have a recipe everyone raves about? If so, now is the perfect time to share the recipe mostly pre-made for easy baking by the recipient of your gift mix. What a delight!
I’ve got some favorite recipes that are easy to make for the baker and quick for you to assemble, as the gift giver.
Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies Gift Mixes are such a treat!
Try this delicious recipe – Tender Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies. See the notes of each recipe for the gift mix preparation and gift card baking instructions already written out for you.
Tender Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies from pantry
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour, sifted
- ½ cup cake flour can use 1 cup, 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour instead; cake flour makes cookies more soft and tender
- ½ tsp baking soda do not add baking soda if using Self-Rising Flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup packed brown sugar dark or light
- ⅓ cup sugar, granulated or caster
- 1 cup chocolate chips, semi-sweet or milk chocolate
- ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
- ½ cup butter 1 stick American measure
- ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C
Prepare dry ingredients
- Combine flour (all-purpose and cake), baking soda, salt in a small bowl & whisk together
Make the cookie dough
- Cream together butter, brown sugar, grandulated sugar and vanilla extract in large mixing bowl until light and creamy
- Beat in egg thoroughly
- Gradually beat in the dry ingredient mixture until just combined
- Stir in the chocolate chips and (optional) nuts
Bake the cookies
- Drop rounded tablespoons a couple inches apart from each other onto ungreased baking sheet
- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes until golden brown
- Cool on the baking sheets for 2-5 minutes
- Move to a wire rack or serving plate to cool
Serve
Notes
- In a jar, add chocolate chips, then sugar, brown sugar, flours, baking soda and salt. Close jar, decorate with ribbon, and attach cooking instructions as follows
Nutrition
For some variety try Double Chocolate Decadent Brownies – temping, easy and delicious!
Hot Cocoa Mix, with Mexican and Peppermint varieties, is one of the easiest and yet sure to please!
An easy and delicious gift mix to make is hot cocoa mix, which is simply a glorious mixture of 1 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt and (if you like) mini marshmallows or other flavors. Make a peppermint variety by adding some crushed up peppermint candies or adding some candy canes. Or consider making tasty Mexican Hot Chocolate by adding 1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon and a 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder. Delicious!!! Your gift recipient need only heat up milk, milk substitute or even water (6 cups) to make it.
What’s next?
Explore Ready and Thriving for creating the perfect baking pantry along with other pantry recipes. Bookmark the Ready and Thriving page and come back to check for more homemade, sustainable gift ideas, bakes and organizational tips that will support you to be ready for anything!
View how to videos at Ready and Thriving YouTube channel and become a free subscriber to see more suggestions to help you thrive.
