Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

and

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

I really like the idea of giving baked goodies as gifts this time of year. They have that, “I cared enough to make something especially for you” touch, they’re easy on the budget, and they’re more likely to be appreciated and used than, say, a lava lamp or yet another necktie.

I used to be much better at making fun little Christmas gifts for all our friends and neighbors. We made homemade vanilla and triple sec with beautiful labels; I baked platters full of cookies, four, five, six varieties. Once I even made dozens of truffles. I won’t tell you how many I ate and how many I gave away though. You’d never look at me the same again. But I used to go all out. And then I had kids.

The one problem with this gift idea is they’re so last minute. Like we didn’t have enough to do those last few days before the holiday, right? You have to do them within a day or two of giving, in order for them to be nice and fresh…. As my kids grew up I started to think more broadly about the kind of gifts that I can make in bulk to hand out to all the wonderful friends I’ve gathered over the years. And as much as possible I’d like the kids to help me out. Because you’re never too young to learn to be neighborly, right?

Years ago, our little family–two parents, three little girls–lived in smack in the middle of Oregon’s Santiam Pass. It was ten miles to the nearest store, twenty to the nearest town, pre-cell phone days, and I didn’t drive. I had a lot of time to do things, and one of the things I did was can fruits and jams and jellies and…

Bread! I canned quick breads! The wonderful thing about it was that I could spend a day mixing up batters and baking bread, and months later all I needed to do to was open a jar, and presto! Banana bread, or apple bread, or zucchini bread.

You can, too. You don’t even need a canner to do it.

What you’ll need is:

• The ingredients for your favorite quick bread(s)
• Wide mouth pint canning jars, the kind without any shoulder
• The metal rims and tops for the jars
• An oven
• Fabric and ribbon scraps, scrapbooking supplies, stickers, anything you want!

The cool thing about this project is that you can be as simple or as fancy as you want. You can mix up a special gingerbread or pound cake from scratch OR you can make something right out of a box.  Either way you will end up with a very pretty little gift with not much effort. And you probably have what you need in the house now.

Begin by sterilizing your jars. Run them through the dishwasher on high heat or boil them for a bit in a big pot of water.

Now, take three or four clean pint jars and grease them as you would a loaf pan. You’ll be baking the bread in the jars. The difference is, a nice crown of risen bread in a loaf pan is a beautiful thing, but bread above the rim of your jar will have to be cut off, so don’t overfill them. A little over half full is about right, as a rule.

When you have spooned the batter into the jars, take a clean, damp cloth or paper towel and wipe the rim of the jar off. Any batter or grease on the glass edge will prevent a good seal. Put them into the oven and bake as usual. You may find it takes a little less time for the baking, because the jars are smaller than loaf pans.

When the bread is done, take one jar at a time, wipe off the rim again, and using tongs and a pot holder, screw on the metal rings and lids, and tighten well. Set them on a rack or heat-proof surface and let them cool.

Your last step is to listen for the little *pop* that tells you the jars have sealed. You’ll be able to do a visual check on that, too. In the center of the lid there’s a little dome. When the jar seals, the dome sucks down, turning the dome into a depression, caused by the cooling of the hot bread and air inside the jar creating a vacuum. (That’s why you want that glass edge to be clean–no vacuum equals no seal!)

After attaching the lids, decorate with circles of fabric, strips of fun papers or ribbons or fun button. Another idea is to take a big circle of fabric, and gather it around the jar, cinching it up with a rubber band. Then tie a pretty bow around the elastic. You can stop there, because it’s already pretty, or do what I did and tuck in a bookmark. (This one is made for cooks, from a 1920′s cooking cartoon strip.)

Add a label (a tag punch makes this easy and looks fantastic!) and hand them out to teachers, friends and coworkers for a little holiday cheer! Jars can be kept at room temperature for a week or in the fridge for two before being eaten.