Mason Jar Baking Mixes

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Crafting helps me clear my mind, focus on being creative and relax. This can be anything from decorating and filling my Happy Planner to making greeting cards or gifts on my Cricut. Although my crafting hobby can be tedious, it successfully gets my mind off of work and allows for drinking on the job ❤🍷

Last weekend I found myself headed to a bridal shower. I had gotten the bride a 5 piece baking set, which included an 8-in cake pan, loaf pan, muffin pan, 9"x13" bar pan and a cookie sheet, along with various other kitchen items off of her registry. Although these were all gifts that the bride had asked for, the package still seemed cold and impersonal. This is a feeling that I struggle with often, especially when gifting gift cards or registry items. These gifts tend to lack a personal touch.

I thought back to my bridal shower and to the gifts that stood out. My aunt had purchased all of my cookie sheets and cooling racks and included ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. I had the idea to include several mason jar baking mixes and recipe cards for the bride that would work with her new baking set. This meant that there would be little to no measuring for the bride and I'd be able to include multiple recipes at a reasonably low cost.

In the gift, I included...

• Beer Bread
• Banana Bread
• Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Cocoa Brownies

These Mason Jar Baking Mixes are a great way to personalize any gift, especially with the holidays on the horizon. They add a handmade and warm touch to any gift for about the same overall cost as buying a boxed mix. The Ball Mason Jars sell for ~$1 at Christmas Tree Shops / World Market, and aside from chocolate chips, I had all of the dry ingredients in my pantry. This project cost me less than $5...TOTAL. It was the perfect addition to warm up this shower gift without blowing my budget. By changing font, paper color, ribbon color, and even the recipe, these jars are easy to customize for different holidays and occasions.

Seasonal & Birthday Suggestions...

• Pumpkin Bread
• Gingerbread
• Rice Krispie Treats
• Sugar Cookies (include seasonal sprinkles)
• Irish Soda Bread
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Snickerdoodles

To make these I needed...

• (4) 32 oz. Ball Mason Jars
• Dry Ingredients for recipes
• Mix-Ins (chocolate chips, nuts, etc.)
• Portion Control Plastic Bags
• Printed Recipes
• Ribbon
• Single Hole Punch

1. Wash and dry the mason jars, remove any price tags, etc. Make sure the jars are thoroughly dried before filling them with ingredients to prevent mold!
2. Begin layering your ingredients. Consider the order which they are needed for the recipe and the contrast in ingredient colors. Use portion control plastic bags for any critical ingredients or overflow.
   
   For instance, I used the portion control plastic bags for the sugar in the chocolate chip cookie recipe since it needs to be creamed into the butter in step 1. (The tall skinny design of this bag allowed me to easily punch a hole in the zipper top and thread them through my ribbon.) I also put the chocolate chips at the bottom of the jar since they get stirred in last. This made it easy to separate out ingredients as required.
   
   Contrarily, the order that ingredients are mixed into the brownies does not matter so I opted to vary the color (flour, cocoa, sugar) to create a striped effect.
3. Add mix-ins. Some of my jars were on the lighter side so I added my favorite mix-ins to top them off. For example, the banana bread mix only took up half of the jar. I added toasted walnuts and chocolate chips to the top for an extra delicious batter and a full jar.
4. Seal jars. Punch hole in recipe cards, attach to jars with ribbon.