Tonight I made Christmas cookies in a jar, from this pin. It comes from Bakerella's blog on Cowgirl Cookies. I just swapped the pink M&Ms for Christmas ones and there you go!
Here are a couple of tips if you attempt layered jar cookies or any other type of jar recipes.
I found that the easiest way to do the bottom layer (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt) was to roll up a paper towel to act as a funnel. If I just dumped stuff in, a lot of the flour stuck to the side of the jars and it wasn't nearly as "neat" as using the paper towel. I still managed to make quite a mess, as you can see! I also used the paper towel for the oats layer, but it isn't as necessary then. I did one layer at a time in all of the jars before moving on to the next layer.
When Bakerella says that you need to pack the layers in, she means you need to PACK the layers in. I used a tall spice shaker and it worked pretty well. When I got to the brown sugar layer near the top, I also used a spoon to smooth down the edges and make it look neater. I didn't use quite all the M&Ms or chocolate chips the recipe called for, but still had to really pack everything in to get it to fit.
I put the fabric between the parts of the lid to hold it down. I also typed up directions for how to bake the cookies and will be putting a hole punch in the corner and tying them around the jars.
I made a total of 15 jars. Three of them are dark chocolate, three are peanut butter, and the rest are milk chocolate. Since most people that make these are probably doing them in bulk like I did, I'm including the amounts of each ingredient I had to buy to make 15 jars.
Flour- 2 bags (5 lb. each)
Sugar- 1 bag (5 lb.)
Brown sugar- 1 1/2 bags (2 lb. each)
M&Ms- 5 bags (1 bag for every 3 jars- a little more than that if you use the full 3/4 cup)
Chocolate chips- 5 bags (same as M&Ms)
Oats- a little over 1 (42 oz.) container
Total time: About 1 1/2- 2 hours from start to finish.
