DIY Holiday Cookie Gift Jars with NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE Cookie Recipe

While browsing through Pinterest for baked good gift ideas, I have noticed a lot of the cookies in mason jars have layered dry ingredients that include baking instructions. While these type of mason jars look pretty, the last thing anyone wants is another task during the holidays. So instead of giving your friends or loved ones a mason jar filled with cookie mix, why not take the extra step and bake cookies for them? I used NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE products to create the two types of holiday cookies inside of my mason jar gift containers. These would make a great gift for a loved one and I am excited to share how I made these!

The two cookies in my mason jars included Dark Chocolate Peppermint and Holiday Chocolate Chip. The Dark Chocolate Peppermint cookies are in a precut refrigerated cookie dough and a dozen are ready in less than 30 minutes. 

I broke out the squares and placed them on the baking sheet after preheating the oven to 350 degrees. I rolled them after spacing the 12 cookies so they wouldn’t have a square shape after baking.

I took out the cookies and placed a second tray right after for the same amount of time. I removed the first batch from their baking sheet and placed on a wire rack to cool. The came out pretty thin, but I love how the peppermint chunks looked. When I tried them, they were fudgy and I loved the mix of peppermint chunks and semi-sweet morsels. They were all the perfect size to fit inside the mason jars (if you are using mason jars, look for ones with a wide opening.) 

I liked that the Dark Chocolate Peppermint cookies were really easy to make, but I wanted to bake some of my own chocolate chip cookies using the NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE Holidays Morsels. I took the recipe from the back of the Holiday Morsels bag, but substituted the nuts with 1 cup of NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE Bittersweet Morsels. This felt like the best way to remix a classic for the holidays. I will admit that I have never baked cookies for my blog because the last time I attempted to bake cookies, it resulted in crispy, burnt mess. I was a little nervous attempting this recipe, but I think I have learned the trick to making soft, chewy cookies.  If you learn anything from this post it is that butter should be at room temperature before creamed with sugar to result in soft, cookies.

Once the cookies have cooled down, they are ready to be placed inside the mason jars! I found these Spritz mason jars in the holiday section at Target on sale for $2.40 each. They came with the red ribbon and I had holiday ornaments ready to place on them. These came with gift tags on the lids, but one can easily be tied around the jar. I mixed a few of the different cookies together in some and kept them all the same in the rest. These make a great, inexpensive gift for the holidays and can easily be customized with decorations or items you have on hand. Add a twig from a pine tree, mistletoe, or a fake poinsettia flower to decorate the jar. You can always use boxes or Tupperware as your container, but I love that mason jars are budget-friendly and can be used as a glass cup with milk for the cookies. 

Baking for the holidays is easier with NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE and I hope this gives you inspiration to bake for someone special this holiday season. For more baking inspiration, check out their Pinterest page here. To save on your baking, enjoy these coupons for NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE products. These coupons are limited and only available while supplies last!

To make it easier to bake, I’ll be hosting a giveaway on Instagram, so make sure to follow me @willbakeforshoes for a chance to enter and win!