Cookies In A Jar Tutorial

So as you may know this year I made the pledge to only give handmade gifts to family & friends, well in honour of this pledge this Christmas I am giving all my playgroup mummy friends their own COOKIES IN A JAR!!!! These are so fun & colourful & just the perfect present for anyone.

Alright so onto the good part, to make these gorgeous little jars here's what you'll need;

1ltr Jar ~ I hoarded my Maccona coffee (200g) jars for the whole year but still didn't have enough so popped into Vinnies & picked spares up for as little as 50c
1 cup Plain Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Bi Carb Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
100g M&Ms
125g White Choc Chips

Sift flour, baking powder, bi carb & salt together then place in the bottom of the jar. Layer brown sugar, caster sugar, rolled oats in this order, making sure to compress each layer. Finally layer M&Ms then white choc chips. That's it, simple isn't it.

Now the rest of the recipe goes like this which you might like to copy & paste into a Word document then laminate just as I have done;

COOKIES IN A JAR
Prep 10 mins Cooking 15 mins Makes 24

Extra ingredients needed to make cookies
125g butter, melted & cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

To make cookies, preheat oven to 190C
Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Empty jar into a large bowl. Add butter, egg
& vanilla. Stir until well combined. Shape
tablespoons of mixture into balls & place on
baking trays approx. 5cm apart.
Bake for 10 – 15 mins., swapping trays
halfway during cooking or until edges are
lightly browned.
Turn cookies onto a wire rack to cool.
Serve & Enjoy!!!

I hope you have as much fun as I did prepare these gifts & I hope your friends & family love them as much as mine did.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

FUN FRIDAY - CRAFTY COLOURED RICE

Wow I'm so super dooper excited, today we have our first GUEST BLOGGER!!!

When I saw my friend, Cath's Facebook status mentioning she was trying her hand at colouring rice for her young son I just knew I had to grab her for a guest blog post. So here you have it introducing Catherine Chapman & her adorable son Heath showing us all how to make....

Crafty Coloured Rice

I never really considered using rice as a plaything for my son before, but I found the idea on the internet and HAD to try it out. Its great fun for them, as it sifts through there fingers, and they can pour into cups, bowls etc… even can be used to stick to their drawings. The colours add that extra touch, and will be enjoyed by your kids.
Dying Your Rice

I think the best rice to use, would be any rice that is white, so jasmine rice, long grained rice etc… as it picks up the dye better, brown rice won’t work as the colour won’t stick to it as well as white rice.

In a small bowl (metal or plastic bowls work best as they won’t stain)

Then mix 3 tablespoons of water with 4 – 5 drops of food colouring, depending on how strong you want the colour, stir with a metal spoon till the water and food colouring is mixed together

The next step is to add 1 cup of rice to the coloured water, let it sit for 5 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Then using a sieve, drain the rice and spread the colored rice out on newspaper (make it several layers thick to absorb any excess liquid) to dry. Let it dry for a few hours, 7 – 10 hours.. Works better if dried overnight. You can repeat as many times as you like with the different colors. (I have used blue, green and yellow in the photos)

Once dried, mix colours together, and then let the kids have a play! The rice is best kept in see through jars.

Kids will mix the colours, so if you want to keep them separate, make sure you only offer one colours at a time. For putting out multiple colors at once, egg cartons for example are best to use, just spoon one color into each cup.

The coloured rice should keep indefinitely. However kids may scatter or hide rice around the house, I have already found some in my sons ride-on car, oopsey!

Ideas for the coloured rice
Layer colours in a jar
You can make pretty decorations by simply layering colored rice in a clear glass jar and setting it on the shelf.

Make pictures

Spread glue on a picture and then sprinkle with coloured rice, great to add a special touch to those drawings.
 
 
 
A very big thanks again to Catherine for doing this guest blog spot for us!!! If you try this out or any other of our crafts & tips I'd love to see your photos. Photos can be emailed to sweetcheekcrafts@gmail.com