Valentine’s Day mason jar Cookie mix Review

I got this Valentine’s Day Mason Jar Cookie mix from my sister at Christmas and wanted to do a little review on it for you. It’s from my favorite store of all time: Target. Last I checked, they are still selling them in stores on an end cap, but I also found them online here. I’m guessing they will have them for other holidays, too. (Crossing my fingers!!)

I shared a picture of my cookies on Instagram and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest.  My friend Kaylin even shared them on her Instagram!

 

If I ever get back home to Omaha (where my laptop is…seriously, this was a real vacation), I will have a blog post for you about these yummy Valentine’s Cookies. ???? #imasemihealthnut #cookies ps note my attempt at cookie styling. ?

A photo posted by Amanda DeWitt ??? (@semihealthnut) on Feb 2, 2016 at 8:24am PST

I feel slightly guilty when a recipe on this blog isn’t made from scratch, but I have to remind myself that if I don’t have time to make all of my meals from scratch…it’s likely there are others who need a time saver as well.  

So Valentine’s Day is this weekend. Crazy. I’m super excited for Dave to get back into town to celebrate with me, but I might be most excited that we can look at houses together.

[ read about my experience looking at houses alone last weekend. ]

Also our Valentine’s Day plans consist of hanging out together (before he leaves again) and watching the new Walking Dead episode. Have I mentioned that we are party people?

[ check out my super-nerdy-fun Walking Dead workout here. ]

Okay onto these cookies. I was so excited to unwrap this jar from my sister! I love pink and pink cookies in this cute mason jar just made me happy.

I decided to take some pictures of the process to keep up on my photography + foodie styling skillz because it’s been awhile since I’ve done a recipe for you guys. I keep thinking we will get our own house soon with my own foodie photography spot so I think I will just wait until then to get back into it. I’m realizing I really have no idea how long it will take. So I’m back to working with what I have now.

A note about the foodie photography items: I got both the gold heart cards and gold straws from Target. I love Target.

Valentine’s Day Mason Jar Cookie mix Review

One thing I realized with this mason jar cookie mix is that you can’t cream the butter and sugar together like I normally do with my cookie recipes. It requires you to melt the butter first and then you can actually mix all of the ingredients together.

I would recommend following the directions to dump the mix into a separate bowl to break up the cookie mix because the way I did it (just dumping the whole thing into the bowl with butter and egg) was a little time consuming. I had to get in with my hands right away.

One way I think you should veer from the directions is to put the dough in the fridge for awhile. Maybe I’m a creature of habit, but I’m so used to doing this that I did it automatically. The cookies spread a little even after putting the dough in the fridge, so I would imagine they would spread even more based on past baking excursions.

I would say refrigerate about half an hour or if you have to refrigerate more than a couple of hours, leave some time for the dough to get closer to room temp again so you can form balls (about 20 minutes on the counter should do it).

Something I’m a little torn on is the price. Looking up the price, it’s 10.99 for the mason jar cookie mix. It seems like a lot for still having to mix up and bake the cookies yourself. Thinking of buying a simple cookie mix, I have in the past spent about $2. BUT there is also the sprinkles and chocolate chips to consider. Add on another $5 for a container of Valentine’s sprinkles and maybe $2 for the chocolate chips PLUS the mason jar and the price doesn’t seem that bad.

I also found the exact jar at Macy’s for $18.99…so Target definitely wins there.

Mason Jar Cookie Mix Pros:

1. No measuring of ingredients. All you need is a stick of butter and an egg! This really is the main benefit of cookie mixes which means less mess and no measuring utensils to get dirty. (huge pro for me as I hate getting the Daddio’s kitchen all messy) You also save yourself the chance of having some ingredients go bad if you don’t use them very often (like brown sugar which tends to get super hard after awhile).

2. You get a large mason jar out of the deal. Who doesn’t love a good mason jar these days??

3. Pretty pink cookies. I loved that the mix had both pink sugar AND pink and red sprinkles to make it super festive.

4. The jar with the mix in it looks super cute on the counter during the time you haven’t yet prepared it.

 Mason Jar Cookie Mix Cons:

1. A little tricky to get all of the mix out of the jar, especially with the packed brown sugar. It might have been because the mix was sitting for over a month?

2. Cookies might spread a bit unless you refrigerate the dough because of the use of melted butter.

3. Very sweet. (which could be a pro, just depends on your taste! you could always add a little more flour and some milk to balance it out.)

Overall thoughts: I will most likely find myself picking up another jar at some point because of the timesaving, cuteness and mason jar factors.

[Tweet “Check out a tasty review of @masonjarcookie from @target. #imasemihealthnut #ilovetarget”]

Tell me…

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? For us it was kind of a good excuse to have Dave come back home from his work project..ha! This starkly contrasts our first Valentine’s Day where Dave got me ALL of the stereotypical gifts — a giant bear (GIANT), a box of heart shaped chocolates, roses…the works. Not so much anymore but that’s okay.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. Like I said, my sister got me the jar for Christmas. I just love Target.