Sending baked cookies in the mail is a super sweet gesture, so long as they arrive on time, and in one piece! A cookie jar mix, however, means that your recipient will be enjoying oven-fresh cookies at their leisure, all the while thinking about how awesome you are.
But sometimes cookie jar mixes can be too rooster, denim and gingham. What about a mix for those of us who only wear black and couldn’t tie a perfect bow to save our lives? Enter the punk rock cookie jar mix!
With cut-out ransom letters as the label, and a safety pin holding together the ribbon, you don’t need to be too precise with the design. And the whole thing comes together in about half an hour, making it a great last minute gift. I sent these Double Chocolate Pecan cookies to my friend Anna Dorfman, because she built and designed such a lovely site for the Teal Cat Project.
What you’ll need:
All of the ingredients for the cookies (below)
A clean empty jar with a lid big enough to hold 3 1/2 cups of stuff (I used a mason jar here, but an empty spaghetti sauce jar works, too.)
Some ribbon, about a foot (somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide)
Some glossy magazines
A used card, or stock paper with a pretty print and a blank side, about 4×3
Small safety pin
Hole puncher
Glue stick
Optional (both of these things are available at craft stores):
Sticker strips of animal print
Small silver stud stickers
1) Gather your ingredients. You’ll need:
1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons ground flax seeds, 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans, 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips
2) Wrap jar one inch from the bottom and 2 inches from the top with the animal print stickers. You can make your own strips with some printed paper and a glue stick.
3) Cut out letters from magazines to spell out C-O-O-K-I-E-S
4) Place the “K” first. Because it’s the middle letter it will give you more control in where the other letters are going. Use a glue stick to completely coat the backs of the cut out letters, and stick them firmly in place. Rub them to make sure they stay put.
5) Time to fill the jar! Make a funnel out of paper to get your ingredients in without making a mess. Just roll a sheet of paper into a cone and snip off the bottom.
6) Add the flour first, along with the baking soda, salt and flax. Then add the pecans, and use a spoon to smush them into the sides so that they show through. Add the sugar, then chocolate, then the chocolate chips. Seal jar tightly.
7) Make the card. Use an old card or stock paper with a pretty print and a blank side. I used the May image from the My Zoetrope calendar. Make a rectangle big enough to fit the text. Fold it in half and punch a hole in the upper left side.
8 ) The card can say whatever you want, but it should definitely have the cookie title and directions. It should say “Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies” “Mix with: 1/3 cup veg oil, 1/4 cup soy milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla.” “Roll into 1 inch balls. Place on parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten into 1 1/2 inch discs. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 F. Makes 20 cookies.”
9) Slide the ribbon into the hole you punched and make sure it’s secure. Wrap ribbon around the lid and affix with a safety pin. The card should be dangling a few inches.
10) Stick a few silver stud stickers on the jar letters, and the card. Voila! Your punk rock cookie gift jar is finished. Makes sure to pad it really well if you’re mailing it. Perhaps throw in an oven mitt?
I did this for my friends at christmas, they thought I’d bought them! Great idea 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I will definitely be making these come Christmas time!
I’m going to make these for Christmas! What a great idea.
Soooo pretty! Love that idea! <3
OMG how creative is this! What a great bday gift idea 🙂 Love it!
Perfect! And much better for holidays, I think, than those weird cookie swaps.
you rock! I love it!
I love this! Will def save this idea for Christmas!
These look fantastic! Super easy & fun to make/receive. Thank you.
How much sugar?
Thank you for catching that! It’s 3/4 cup, I will update the post.
Mmmm!! Excited to try this! Can it be used with other recipes from VCTOYCJ?
Probably, so long as the quantities look similar. You don’t want an underfilled jar, or a jar where all the ingredients don’t fit.
If I were to give this to an omnivore who doesn’t usually have any non-dairy milk around, and I don’t want to encourage the use of dairy milk for obvious reasons, do you think it would work if I added soy milk powder to the mix and replaced the soy milk with water on the recipe card? Just wondering….
This looks awesome, by the way! I think I’m going to make these cookies for myself tonight! 🙂
I’d say instead to supply a little sip box of vegan milk.
This is awesome! But how much sugar? It’s not mentioned in step one
Ignore previous post; the sugar amount showed up *after* I sent my inquiry. I can’t wait to try these! 🙂
I looked a few times, but how much sugar is there to put into the jar?
Ugh, sorry… Forget my post, too.
Sugargate 2011.
I want to make these cookies for my mom, but she is deathly allergic to nuts. Think chocolate chips will work? Worst case, I guess I could just eat them:-)
I can’t get over how adorable these are!!! I am already thinking of making them for housewarming gifts.
So I’m totally shy at first in person…but was completely start struck when I saw you this weekend! Can’t wait to read more….and more…and more… Next time, I really will come up and say hi 🙂
Fantastic idea! Think I know what my friends are getting for Xmas this year… What an ace way to introduce my non-vegan friends to the joys of vegan baking 😉
Hey the small vegan milk container was a genius idea! 🙂 I made the cookies for me and my husband last night and they were delicious! Thanks, Isa!
Totally going to send these to my cousin at college! She has a kitchen for the first time and is very excited to use it, though doesn’t know how to make anything, so this will be perfect 🙂 Thanks a million for the great idea! I also love the idea to send an oven mit, and ALSO love the idea to send a sippy container of soy milk! I was worried she’d use dairy milk too 🙂 I think Whole Foods sells small containers of soy so I could include one in the package. Thanks, Isa!!
another thing to use for the recipe card, pages from a page-a-day calendar. Especially if it’s a thank you gift and you use the date they did the something nice!
These are awesome! Could we get a close-up of what appears to be some cookbooks on the bookshelf? I’m just curious what you have. I think I see a Nigella in there…
I love it and am totally giving these out this holiday season, in an oven mitt, with a mini container of soy or almond milk. Thanks Isa!
How fun will this be? Love it! Thanks!
This would be a super cool item to offer in the Vegan Van for holidays. Would it be okay with you if I used this idea (but with my own recipes, obvs)? So awesome to see you at Vida Vegan Con!
I usually send cookie jars at xmas but never sent vegan ones so as my first vegan xmas these will be on my list to send! Thanks 🙂
O h m y G O D
That is too cool. I am sOO making these as gifts! wow!
That is totally going to interfere with my insistence that veganage with help with losing weight tho…hehe
Oh thank god, I wanted to do this at Christmas last year but thought it would be all screwed up if you didn’t soak the flax and so on etc. Thanks for the awesomeness Isa!
You are so cute I could effing puke. And pretty much everyone I know is getting this for every gift I ever have to give them pretty much forever.
Love this! I need to do this for my friends.
This has nothing to do with this post but I didn’t want to look for an old one that had what I was asking about in it.
I was looking at some of your cookbooks (Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance I think) and noticied you say to use cooking wine a couple times. My sister who is a cooking genius and whom I would trust with my cooking-life (figuratively speaking) says that cooking wine is horrible and a waste of money and you shouldn’t use it.
Is there some vegan-y reason to use it?
(It’s not that hugely important as I wouldn’t use it anyway or any wine for that matter but I was kind of curious.)
So awesome! Making some of these for friends and family will make my day!
wow! this is great! i’m going to make it for my penpals when they have a birthday!
Fantastic! I’ve also been decorating my glass jars lately.
I just tried the recipe. Mother Love. They are indeed A-mazing! I will certainly be jarring up this cooking mix for Xmas gifts…and any other special occasion or holiday that merits a gift.
This is so cool. Guess what everyone will be getting from me for any upcoming holiday.
Thank you so much, Isa, you saved my broke ass. ;))
Wow. What an awesome idea. I made these for a friend of mine, but now I’m thinking of more friends and family I want to make these for!
I love this concept, I wish someone would give me a recipe in a jar!
Great idea. So much fun
This is great!!! Do you happen to have any other vegan recipe’s in a jar? I’ve been out of work for the last 5 months and plan to be out longer, due to an injury and surgery, so I don’t have much money for christmas gifts, but these seem perfect!!! If you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know, I would LOVE them!!!
I don’t, but any recipe that looks like it makes the same amount would work.
I LOVE THIS! I’m excited to use it 🙂
Thank you!
Um WOW, I am gonna be all over this like…well, me, on cookies.
I’m going to try this with the cherry almond cookies from vegan cookies invade your cookie jar for my mom’s birthday, and see how she makes out with it. And if she asks me if it’ll work with dairy milk I’m going to say no, it wont. ha.
I did these 2 years ago for the holidays using various recipes from Vegan Cookies
I was just remembering this kind of thing from a newspaper story a million years ago. Thank you for reading my mind.