Edible Gifts - Cowgirl Cookie Jar Mix

Can you believe there's only a week to go til Christmas?! It's really snuck up on me this year and I feel so disorganised. I only put the Christmas tree up last week, my cards were posted on Friday and I've barely started my Christmas shopping. My family does KK each year so we each get something big that we really want. That means that my sisters and I don't give each other presents (unless we've drawn each other for KK) but this year I decided to surprise them with a little gift each. This jarred cookie mix, that I found on Bakerella, was perfect, it was an affordable gift, but still very effective with the layers of dry ingredients in the jar. Plus home made gifts are always that little bit more meaningful. (BTW, please forgive the date stamp on the photos - I was using someone else's camera and didn't realise that setting was on).

I found these M&Ms that have been released for Christmas so I thought these would be perfect for my jars. My sisters all absolutely love white chocolate too, so I thought I'd add a few of those along with the milk choc chips.

Bakerella even created some printable labels that I used. On the back there's another label with the directions (US temperatures and measurements). I had a little trouble with these, I'm not sure if it was the round labels or the curve of the jars but I just couldn't get them to stick without having at least one crease in the label. Plus, as you can see I decided against having fabric over the lid. I had wanted to put some red or green fabric there but it didn't really go with the pink label, plus with the jars I got the lid was a bit awkwardly shaped.

This is my beautiful nephew Lenny - do you think he was impressed? :)
Ingredients (makes one 1 litre jar)
Layer your ingredients in your jars in the following order (and make sure you pack the ingredients in really tight - otherwise they won't all fit):
1 1/3 cup plain flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup M&Ms
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Method:
1. Empty your jar of dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together.
2. Add 1 slightly beaten egg, 1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave) and 1 tsp vanilla and mix together - you might have to get your hands dirty for this (don't put them in your mixer like I did before I'd read the instructions properly - this apparently breaks up the M&Ms which makes the colour bleed a little - duh!)

3. Roll your dough into balls and place on a baking paper covered baking tray for about 10 minutes in a 180 C oven. 

These cookies are great because you can make them specific to whichever holiday you are celebrating at the time. Bakerella added pink M&Ms in hers, so you can really add whichever colours you like. 

Recipe Source:

Bakerella's 

Cowgirl Cookie Jar Mix

Cowgirl Cookie Jar Mix In a 1 litre jar layer the dry ingredients in the following order: First - flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt Second - oats Third: M&Ms Fourth - chocolate chips Fifth - brown sugar Sixth - white sugar Seventh - chopped pecans Make sure that you pack each level down very tightly. This is important as you may not fit in all the ingredients otherwise. So push down really well! Wet ingredients: 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup butter (almost melted in the microwave) 1 tsp vanilla To make the cookies: 1. Empty your jar of ingredients out into a bowl and mix together. 2. Using a wooden spoon (or your hands if need be) mix in the wet ingredients. 3. Roll your dough into balls and place on a baking tray which has been covered with baking paper 4. Bake for about 10 minutes in a 180C oven. 5. Remove from tray and cool on a wire rack.