Gifts In A Jar

So as promised, here are the recipes and photos from the bridal shower gift I gave my sister this past weekend. I posted the "teaser" photo earlier which showed the four gifts in a jar with the accouterments that made the gift. Three of the jar mixes came from the book The Ultimate Gifts for the Cookie Jar by Lia Roessner Wilson. Here's a link on Amazon:





Along with the three recipes I used from this book, I also used the Mocha Rum Balls recipe I posted about earlier for a total of four gifts in a jar. Here are the three recipes:

The Recipes:

Hearty Trail Mix Cookies

These hearty cookies are filled with natural goodness - oats, raisins and coconut - as well as with a chocolate treat. They're not only delicious, but colorful too. The candies provide a rainbow of color throughout.
Ingredients for the jar:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup M&M candies

Instructions for jar:

1. In a 1-quart jar: pack brown sugar in bottom and make as level as possible. Pour sugar over and level.
2. Pour oats over sugar and level.
3. In small bowl, combine flour; baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. Gently spoon flour mixture over oats. Level carefully, then tamp down.
4. Sprinkle raisins over flour mixture. Level and smooth the edges to make them even. Sprinkle raisins on top and press down. Sprinkle coconut over raisins and press down.
5. Sprinkle candies on top. Press down and place lid on jar.

For the gift tag:

Hearty Trail Mix Cookies

• 1 egg
• 6 Tbsp butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Empty contenst of jar into large mixing bowl. Add egg and softened butter.
2. Beat on low speed or by hand to blend, then drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
3. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling rack. (Makes about 3 dozen.)

Colorful Candy Cookies

Colorful cookies are really sugar cookies speckled with colorful, candy-coated chocolate.

Ingredients for jar:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup M&M candies

Instructions for jar:

1. Place sugar in 1-quart jar and smooth over top to make even.
2. Spoon brown sugar over and pack down evenly.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour; baking soad and salt. Stir to mix. Spoon over brown sugar in jar; press down evenly.
4. Pour candies over flour mixture and place lid on jar.

For the gift tag:

Colorful Candy Cookies

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Empty contents of jar into large bowl.
2. Add butter and eggs.
3. Beat by hand, so you don't break candies, until dough is throughly mixed.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until edges are browned.
5. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling rack. (Makes 3 to 3 1/2 dozen).

Mint Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients for jar:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup mint chocolate chips

Instructions for jar:

1. Place sugar in 1-quart jar and spoon brown sugar over sugar.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Spoon mixture over brown sugar.
3. Spoon cocoa over flour mixture, add chocolate chips on top and press gently to fit.

For the gift tag:

Mint Chocolate Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Empty contents of jar into large bowl.
3. Beat egg with vanilla and butter.
4. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients in bowl and stir well.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes.

My results:

Ok, I posted earlier about the disastrous first recipe I tried with the rum balls. But the other three were perfect. They worked just as described and turned out very cute indeed.

As you will see, I made the gift tags with the title on the front and the directions on the back. Each tag was die-cut from a paint chip from the hardware store and then embellished with some glittery floral stickers, then tied onto the jars with some pretty white ribbon. The jars were topped with circles of quilting fabric that I cut with pinking shears for a little ruffled edge. To keep the ribbons on the jar, I put a bit of scrapping adhesive on them in three or four spots so they wouldn't slip and slide on the jar rings.

Here are the photos. First up, the Hearty Trail Mix Cookies:


And a peek under the fabric shows the layering with the raisins, coconut and M&M's.


Next up is the Colorful Candy Cookies:


And a peek under the fabric top reveals the pretty M&M's.


Third is the Mint Chocolate Cookies:

Peek under the fabric:


And last but not least, the Mocha Rum Balls posted about earlier:





And just for kicks, here's the photo of the finished gift all together once again. These gifts-in-a-jar sell at craft fairs for around $10 a jar, so this is a great way to save money and have a fun, personalized gift for someone. I hope you'll give these a try and let me know how it works for you. Enjoy and be sure to check back tomorrow for more recipe fun!

Sneak Peek

Well, I THOUGHT I was well prepared, but turns out I was wrong... We're out of town this weekend for a bridal shower and to visit family and I thought I had typed up the recipes on my computer so I could post them while we away, but turns out I only got PART of them. So you'll have to wait until we get home tomorrow night to get the actual recipes for this post. I am, however, going to post a sneak peek for what I'll be posting since I DO have the pictures with me! Anyway, here's your sneak peek... This is the gift that I made up for my sister's bridal shower that was yesterday morning. She had registered for cookie sheets, etc. and so I decided to make a "kit" with the cookie sheets, cookie scoop, adjust-a-cup, and a couple of spatulas and then added 4 "cookies in a jar" mixes that are the kind that you just dump into a bowl and add a couple of things to make cookies. So here's the gift photo for which I'll post the jar mixes when we get back home:


I also picked up a couple of new cookbooks on our trip, so I'll have to share about those purchases when I get home as well... one is from the famous Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, Texas! So be sure and check back tomorrow!

Today's trial a flop...

SO today I was working on some gifts in a jar for a wedding shower present (Jen if you're reading this, DON'T!) and the first recipe I tried was a complete flop in the sense that it did not work as described... I'll post the recipe, but explain what I did in the end so as not to waste ingredients :) This recipe, along with three others that I will post about in future blog entries, comes from the Ultimate Gifts for the Cookie Jar by Cookbook Resources LLC. All the recipes in this book are meant to be mixes which you layer in mason jars and then give as gifts. This particular recipe is for Rum Balls. Here's a link to the book on Amazon if you'd like a copy (there is no image of the book on the site so forgive the text only link...):

Ultimate Gifts for the Cookie Jar

Now, let me preface this by saying that the other three recipes from the book that I have tried did NOT suffer from the particular problem that this recipe did, so don't let it dissuade you from trying the others, but I think there may have been either a misprint or some other issue with this particular recipe which caused the problem I'll explain below. Here's the recipe as printed in the book:

The Recipe:

Rum Balls

Consider this spirit-filled recipe for the holidays! For a truly unique gift that's sure to be a hit, combine the jar of cookie mix in a decorative holiday basket with a small bottle of rum.

Ingredients for jar:

• 3 cups crushed vanilla wafer cookies
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Instructions for jar:

• Put crushed vanilla wafers in 1 quart (1 L) jar.
• Layer cocoa powder and then powdered sugar over crushed cookies.
• Top with chopped pecans.

Instructions for making cookies:

• 3 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup rum (or bourbon)
• Powdered or granulated sugar

• Empty contents of jar into large mixing bowl. Stir to mix dry ingredients.
• Stir in corn syrup and rum. Blend until dry ingredients are moist.
• Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar or granulated sugar.

My Results:

Ok, first, let me see if you can figure out why this recipe didn't work out... It is meant for a 1 quart canning jar. 1 quart=4 cups right? And how many cups of ingredients do you see in the recipe? 5 1/2!!! So, no, this WON'T fit into a quart jar, no matter how hard you tamp the ingredients down! Had I thought to look at the math BEFORE beginning the recipe, it might have prevented the unfortunate result, which was that when I got to the adding the cocoa powder step, well, it just did NOT fit! The only thing I can figure is that either, a) it should be three cups of vanilla wafers BEFORE crushing (meaning fewer wafers and therefore less crumbs) or one of the other amounts is off. Either way, because I was doing two of this jar and started with just a single, I was able to simply dump the first jar and the remaining ingredients into a bowl and go ahead and make them up (adding a bit of water and a bit of extra corn syrup since there was not enough moisture to moisten the entire mass). The flavor of these is great, but they are not practical as an "in the jar" gift mix. So if you want to just make up a batch of the mix ingredients in a ziplock baggy for later use or even just make the cookies from the entire recipe, they are worth it, but don't rely on it as a "gift in a jar" recipe...

I did find another rum ball recipe on the Internet that I used for the SECOND jar I made up, and I'm happy to post a link for that one here as well. That recipe DOES fit into the jar quite nicely and should be a hit with the recipient. The Internet recipe is for Mocha Rum Balls Mix in a Jar.

All of these recipes in this book come with photocopy-able tags to put on the jars when giving with the directions for making the cookies from the jarred mix. These make a great gift and I have actually sold jars of similar mixes at craft fairs for $8-10 per jar. Not bad for something that only cost $1-2 to make! Anyway, the other three recipes that I am using from this book for this particular gift worked out much better and I hope you'll check back in to see how they worked out. I'll have to wait a few more days before posting though so that the recipient doesn't accidentally see her gift on the blog before she gets it! Be sure to check back this weekend for more fun recipe play and for a few (hopefully!) great grilling trials with my hubby's help!

Last for today... Snickerdoodles

Well, today was a big baking day...with zwieback, banana bread and finally, Snickerdoodle cookies. These are my 10 month old daughter's favorite cookies so I went on a hunt to find a recipe for them in my books. I have several recipes on my computer and there are lots on the Internet, but I had a hard time finding one in my cookbooks for some reason! Finally found one in the old standby The Joy of Cooking. If you don't have this one on your shelf, do yourself the favor of picking up a copy. It is definitely the "go to" for all your basic recipes and is full of great information on the hows and whys of cooking as well. Here's a link to a copy on Amazon if you would like your own:




The Recipe:


Snickerdoodles

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/4 cup sugar

4 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets. Whisk flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt until well blended. In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Add eggs and beat until well combined. Stir in the flour mixture. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls, roll in the cinnamon sugar, and arrange about 2 3/4 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool. Yields thirty-six 3-inch cookies.



My Results:

For this recipe, I did not substitute any ingredients, however I did alter directions just a little bit. For instance, I beat the butter and sugar for a full two minutes to fully incorporate. I also refrigerated the dough before baking it, partially because the butter was so soft and partially because my little E woke up right as I finished mixing the dough. So I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and stashed it in the fridge for about an hour while I played with her, then got back to making the cookies. Here are my ingredients:



And a photo of my dough, ready to be wrapped up for the fridge:



Here are the balls of dough ready for the oven. I used a 1 1/2-inch cookie scoop to make them uniform and even though the recipe says it only makes about 36, I got 47 cookies out of the dough, not counting a little bit of dough shrinkage ;)



Finally, here are the baked cookies, cooling for 5 minutes before being removed to the rack to finish cooling:



And of course I can't resist sharing a photo of the joy on my little E's face as she eats her first bite of homemade Snickerdoodles... I call it Snickerdoodlishous!




And that, my friends, is the end of day one of this year long journey! That last photo makes it all worth while... I hope you've enjoyed reading along with me and will give a try to some of these recipes. Tune in tomorrow for an adventure in Thailand...something from one of my Thai cookbooks!

TODAY'S THE DAY! Join me for the Kick-off!

Today's the day I kick off this year long adventure. Since I had already planned tonight's menu using a recipe from Food Network's Alton Brown (altered for the crockpot), I had a good time checking through my cookbooks for something fun to make today. I'm actually going to be making THREE recipes today, two of which are specifically for my daughter E. She LOVES Snickerdoodle cookies, so that will be one of the recipes. I had no idea how difficult it is to find a recipe for Snickerdoodles in a cookbook! I have a pretty large assortment of cookbooks, but after searching through quite a few of them only found a recipe in the old standby, The Joy of Cooking. So that's one of the recipes I'll be making today. The second recipe I'll be making is to use up some very ripe bananas I have sitting on my counter :) It's a recipe for Banana Tea Bread from a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe book I own (one of two). Also on the page with the tea bread recipe is a recipe for Zwieback, which is a kind of twice-baked sweetly flavored bread that is often used as a teething biscuit for babies, thus perfect for my little E. So today will be a baking day for me with those three recipes. I'll post the recipes, photos and results later in the day or this evening, so be sure to check back and see how it goes! If there are recipes or ideas you have for me to try out over the next year's journey, please leave me a comment and let me know, and if you decide to join me in this journey, be sure to leave your blog address so I can add you to the blogroll!