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. 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 brownie, cookie 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
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 them 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
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 it 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 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!
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.
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.
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.
Decadent Brownies or Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies Gift Mixes are such a treat!
Try one or more of these delicious recipes – Double Chocolate Decadent Brownies and 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.
Double Chocolate Decadent Brownies from pantry
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter
- 1½ cups chocolate chips, semi-sweet or milk chocolate separated ¼ cup and 1¼ cups
- 1½ cups sugar, granulated or caster
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened or dutch-process
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder do not use if using Self-Rising Flour
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C
Grease baking pan/tray, line with parchment paper if removing whole from the tray
Prepare the brownie batter
- Combine butter, 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in microwave safe, large mixing bowl
- Melt together using 30 second increments in the microwave. Whisk after each increment, until completely smooth. Do not allow all chocolate to melt in the microwave, instead let it melt from the heat of the butter
- Add sugar. Whisk until completely combined and sugar has dissolved
- Add eggs and vanilla. Whisk until completely combined.
- Add cocoa powder, flour and remaining chocolate chips. Fold it together using a silicon spatula or wooden spoon. Fold until just combined; do not overmix
- Spread into baking pan evenly and into the corners
Bake
- Bake 30 minutes
- Check to see if it is done – toothpick inserted in center will come out with moist crumbs . Return to oven to cook if wet batter is present during toothpick test – recheck every 2 minutes until done.
- Remove from the oven and leave in the pan to cool completely
Serve and Enjoy!
- Stay fresh at room temperature or refridgerated for one week
- Freeze beautifully. Just thaw to room temperature
Notes
- In a large jar, layer in chocolate chips, granulated sugar, brown sugar, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder.
- Close jar, add ribbon around the lid and attach baking instruction card as follows.
Nutrition
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!
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