Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (in a Jar)

I found this fun recipe on a website called Life123. I wanted to do something creative for the hostesses that were throwing me a baby shower. Since I love food, chocolate and crafts, homemade cookie mix in a jar sounded fun and yummy as a hostess gift. While assembling the jars, I made a batch of the cookies to taste and to bag to put with the jars for the girls to taste the final product before they bake theirs. So, below is the recipe I found and how to assemble the jars.





Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I believe in sifting flour before measuring to avoid heaviness.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Combine all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Assembling Jar:
In a 1-quart, wide-mouth canning jar (mine were not wide-mouth so I made a funnel out of paper to put some ingredients in), layer dark brown sugar, white sugar, cocoa, chopped pecans and chocolate chips. Pack each layer down firmly before you add flour mixture. You will have to pack the flour mixture several times as well for it all to fit. It will all be a snug fit!

Paper funnel...I made 2 - one for white ingredients and the other for dark ingredients

Decorate the jar by tying your choice of ribbon around the lid. I printed out the instructions below on matching cardstock and taped it to the top with each girl's name on top.

Instructions (put with jar for recipient to cook):

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix in a Jar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Empty mix into large bowl.
3. Thoroughly blend mixture with hands. I also used 2 knives to mix in a criss cross cutting motion.
4. Mix in 3/4 cup softened butter or margarine, 1 egg, slightly beaten, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Again I used 2 knives to mix in a criss cross cutting motion as well as a sturdy spatula. The mixture will be very thick and hard to mix.
5. Shape into walnut-size balls and place 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, then move to wire racks.
Yields: ~30 cookies

Tip: I cooked mine 12 minutes. In the future, I would cook them 9-10 minutes as I like them chewier. Secondly, the cookies tasted ok, but something seemed missing and I can't put my finger on it. I plan to undercook them next to see if that would fix the "offness." If not, I will look for another cookie in a jar recipe. I should add that several other taste testers thought the cookies were good and just fine as is, but myself along with a friend felt the same about them.