Mason jar cookie recipes solve the same problem every year: you need twelve small gifts, they need to look like you meant it, and nobody has time to bake twelve batches of cookies. So you layer the dry ingredients in a jar instead, tie the baking instructions to the lid and let the other person do the fun part. There are 20 here, from a reindeer mix with free printable tags to a gluten free and dairy free jar, a gingerbread jar with a cookie cutter tied on and a template you can adapt to any cookie recipe you already love. Two of the cookbooks I still reach for are How to Cook Without a Book and The New Basics, which has been out of print for years, and a jar mix works on exactly that principle: get the method right and the page stops mattering. Perfect for neighbors, teachers, the office, a hostess or a college kid with an empty cupboard!
1. Reindeer Cookies In A Jar
A layered cookie mix in a wide mouth quart jar with a reindeer label on the front and free printable tags to go with it, which is the detail that turns a jar of dry ingredients into an actual gift. Inside it is white chocolate chips, granola, dried cranberries and old fashioned oats over flour and two sugars, so the cookies come out pale and chewy rather than chocolatey. The baker adds softened butter, an egg and vanilla, then eight to ten minutes at 350 degrees. Jars like this are the reason to keep two or three made up on a shelf from the first of December.
Get the full tutorial at Must Have Mom.
2. M&M Cookie Mix In A Jar
One quart jar, seven pantry ingredients and about twenty cookies at the other end. The flour goes in first with the baking powder, soda and salt, then granulated sugar, then a cup of the candies, then brown sugar, with the last third of a cup of candies on top where the glass shows them off. The maker says plainly that you can layer them in any order you like. At home it takes melted butter, an egg, an extra yolk and vanilla, then half an hour in the fridge before scooping. The ruffled fabric under the lid costs nothing and is what makes it look like a gift.
Get the full tutorial at Celebrating Sweets.
3. Chocolate And Oatmeal Cookies In A Jar
Oats, chocolate chips and pale sugar layered in a jar with a small whisk tied on top with ribbon, and that whisk is the idea worth stealing from this one. Tying a tool to the jar makes it a kit instead of a container, and it works just as well with a wooden spoon. The mix itself is small and forgiving: two thirds of a cup of flour with baking soda, cinnamon and salt, then the two sugars, three quarters of a cup of chocolate chips, a cup and a half of oats and half a cup of chopped nuts, pressed firmly after every layer. Eight to ten minutes at 375 degrees.
Get the full tutorial at The Confident Mom.
4. Princess Cookies In A Jar
Pink jellybeans or sixlets are the whole idea here, layered into a quart jar over oats, flour and two kinds of sugar so the candy reads as a bright pink stripe through the middle. Meant as a party favor for a princess party, so every small guest goes home with cookies to bake instead of a bag of plastic. Two instructions from the maker matter: pack every layer down as you go so the jar fills right to the lid, and print the baking directions on cardstock to sit under the screw band.
Get the full tutorial at Frugal Mom Eh!.
5. Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies in a Jar
Two mixes in one tutorial, a double chocolate peppermint and a double chocolate toffee, both with free printable tags and baking instructions. The peppermint one is the Christmas jar, with crushed candy on top of dark cocoa layers. The toffee version is the one the maker suggests for a fall or Thanksgiving gift, which is a useful reminder that a cookie jar does not have to be a December thing. She made a batch of these as neighbor gifts one year, and neighbor gifts are exactly the job they do best.
Get the full tutorial at Crazy Little Projects.
6. Butterscotch Chip Cookie Mix
Butterscotch chips piled over pale cake mix in a wide mouth jar, finished with a white daisy tucked under the ribbon. The recipe behind it is a four ingredient cake mix cookie: a box of butter recipe yellow cake mix, melted butter, two eggs and a generous one and two thirds cups of butterscotch chips. Two details decide whether they work. The dough has to chill for two hours before scooping, and they bake for only seven to thirteen minutes, on the shorter end for a nonstick sheet.
Get the full tutorial at The Frugal Girls.
7. Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Pint Jar
A pint jar rather than a quart, which is the point of this one. A smaller jar costs less, fits in a gift bag and is the right size when you are making a dozen for a whole office or a classroom. Inside go brown sugar with cinnamon, flour, quick oats, half a cup of dried cranberries and half a cup of white chocolate chips. A free printable label comes with it, and the baker adds a quarter cup of softened butter, one egg and vanilla at home.
Get the full tutorial at The Creative Bite.
8. S'mores Cookies Gifts In A Jar
A whole sleeve of graham crackers, crushed down to a cup, is the layer that makes this one taste like a campfire rather than a plain chocolate chip. The flour goes in first, then those graham crumbs, then granulated sugar, brown sugar, a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of mini marshmallows on top. The maker warns that even tamped down a quart jar only had room for half a cup each of the chips and marshmallows, so bag the marshmallows separately if you would rather not crush them. The free printable carries the baking directions. A brilliant summer gift as well as a winter one.
Get the full tutorial at BargainBriana.
9. Cranberry Winter Cookies In A Jar
One quart jar holding flour, oats, brown and white sugar, half a cup of dried cranberries, half a cup of white chocolate chips and half a cup of chopped pecans, with free printable tags to download. The nut free swap is already worked out for you, which is rare and genuinely useful: another half cup of oats, rice crisp cereal or granola in place of the pecans. It sits in a post of five different jar gifts, so one afternoon and one shopping trip can cover your entire list.
Get the full tutorial at Cul-de-sac Cool.
10. Lemon White Chocolate Cookie Mix
Two ingredients in the jar and that is the entire list: a 13.25 ounce box of lemon cake mix and one and two thirds cups of white chocolate chips, layered in a quart wide mouth jar. Cake mix jars are the fastest gift on this page by a wide margin, and lemon is the one people do not expect in December, which is exactly why it stands out on a table of chocolate. The baker adds eggs and oil at home. Ten minutes and a ribbon and you are finished.
Get the full tutorial at The Frugal Girls.
11. Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie Jar Recipe
Eighteen cookies from one quart jar, layered sugar first, then brown sugar, then the flour with the leavening, then a cup each of quick oats, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. The instruction repeated at every stage is the one that matters: tamp each layer down before the next goes in, because that is what gives you those clean horizontal lines through the glass rather than a muddled jar. Free printable labels come with it. Twenty minutes from shelf to finished gift.
Get the full tutorial at Thrifty Jinxy.
12. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies In A Jar
Macadamias and white chocolate chips in the top layer, which is the right way around, because the expensive ingredient should be the one showing through the glass. This is the grown up jar on the list, the one for a hostess or a boss rather than a classroom. Macadamias go rancid faster than other nuts, so buy them fresh, keep the jar out of a sunny window and tell the person to bake within a month. A printed tag hangs off the ribbon with the baking directions.
Get the full tutorial at WinCo Foods.
13. Candy Cookies In A Jar
Chocolate candy cookies layered into a jar, and the maker makes the useful point outright: any cookie recipe at all can be turned into a jar gift using the same layering idea, so your own family recipe works just as well as hers. She filled these with her son one afternoon as gifts for his cooking class teachers, which is the other quiet argument for jar mixes, since a child can do most of the pouring. Keep a funnel or a rolled sheet of paper nearby for the fine layers.
Get the full tutorial at Alida's Kitchen.
14. Double Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Gluten free and dairy free in the same jar, which is an unusually useful thing to have on hand. The mix layers cocoa with a gluten free flour blend, half a cup of unsweetened coconut flakes, a cup of certified gluten free oats and dairy free chocolate chips. At home the baker adds vegan buttery spread, vanilla, water and two tablespoons of applesauce, and that applesauce is standing in for the egg. Sixteen cookies from one jar, and printable gift tags and a recipe card come with it.
Get the full tutorial at The Pretty Bee.
15. Triple Chip Oatmeal Cookie Mix In A Jar
This is the template version: a quart jar with a cup and a quarter each of rolled oats and flour, the leavening, half a cup each of brown and granulated sugar and one cup of mix ins of your choosing. Swap the flour for a gluten free blend or white whole wheat and it still works, which makes one recipe cover everybody on your list. Press firmly after every layer. About thirty cookies, baked twelve to fifteen minutes at 350 degrees with the pans rotated halfway.
Get the full tutorial at Well Plated.
16. Gingerbread Cookie Mix In A Jar
A cut out gingerbread mix rather than a drop cookie, which makes it the one jar on this page that comes with an afternoon of decorating attached. Three and a half cups of flour go in split in two, with a tablespoon of ground ginger, two teaspoons of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice mixed into the first half, and dark brown sugar layered between. A cookie cutter, baker’s twine, decorating gel and sprinkles get tied to the outside, so the whole activity travels in one jar.
Get the full tutorial at Home in the Finger Lakes.
17. DIY Cookie Recipe In A Mason Jar
This one is framed as passing a family chocolate chip cookie recipe on to a grown child, with the dry ingredients layered in the jar so the recipe arrives ready to bake. The reasoning is honest and funny: turn up at a young adult’s apartment expecting to bake together and you may find there is not enough in the cupboard to make a sandwich, let alone a tray of cookies. So bring the ingredients with you. Write the recipe out by hand on the tag, because that is the part they keep.
Get the full tutorial at Home Trends Magazine.
18. Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Mix
Oatmeal raisin with coconut in it, which is the version that wins people over who claim they do not like oatmeal raisin. A cup and a quarter of flour with the leavening goes in first, then a cup of quick oats, a cup of raisins, half a cup of flaked coconut and the two sugars, all in a wide mouth quart jar. The maker suggests writing the baking directions on an index card and tying it on, which costs nothing and looks better than a printed label on a rustic jar.
Get the full tutorial at It's My Side of Life.
19. Cookies For Santa Jars
Quart jars made up as cookies for Santa, with a free printable gift tag and a separate instruction card to download. The trick buried in this one is worth more than the printable: roll a sheet of parchment into a funnel to fill the jars, and the sides stay clean so the layers actually show. Tap the jar on the counter between every layer to compact it. The maker’s children helped assemble batches of these for neighbors and school friends, which is the honest measure of how easy a project really is.
Get the full tutorial at Bloom Designs.
20. Thankful Cookies In A Jar
A Thanksgiving jar rather than a Christmas one, wrapped in an I am thankful for cookies and you label, with orange and brown candies through the mix. Two thirds of a cup of flour goes in with the leavening and sugar, then brown sugar, a cup and a half of oats, chopped pecans, white chocolate chips and Reese’s Pieces. The baked cookies go at 375 degrees for eight to ten minutes, which is hotter and shorter than most on this page, so set a timer.
Get the full tutorial at Kristen Duke Photography.
