If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I love Mason Ball Jars, I have quite a hoarder obession with them, I have Mason Jar wine glassess, I have mason jar drinking glassess, I have new vibrant aqua ball jars, I have them with handles as well as my beloved collection of antique ones, that I got at a garage sale years ago. Those tend to move around to different places in the Cottage on Cullen. I even ordered a Scentsy Mason Ball Jar. "My name is Gabrielle and I am addicted to Ball Jars." My antique ones are residing here in the newly painted built-in bookcase.
This time last year they had a prominant spot on the farmhouse table.
Ok...so it's no big secret I love them... when I saw this adorable Mason Cookie Jar and the mason jar cookie cutter at World Market, I was over the moon excited. I bought the cookie cutter a few months back and had no idea what I'd use it for. I've pinned a million ideas on my Pinterest boards using Mason Ball Jars. When we got new neighbors moving in across the street last month I knew exactly what I'd use that cookie cutter for. I created a tag with the saying "Hope you have a BALL in your new home" and the year signifies the year they moved in, if they want to keep it as a keepsake. When you look at the original ball jars they have the date the company started on them.
I got these cute little tags from Williams-Sonoma which they don't carry anymore, but Michaels has some cute stamps that you could use instead and you could change the colors to suit your color theme. I used type my saying in my Word Program and used removeable glue dots on the back of the tag and ran it through my printer. I used this font from da font called Brannboll, which was a close match.
My Kitchen-aid mixer has been working hard this last year since I got it last Christmas!! I use it all the time. Thank you Family. If you want to hear a funny story about the first time I tried to get one go HERE. Anywho...on to the Mason Jar cookies.....This recipe IS the BEST sugar cookie recipe ever!! Really...I've been making sugar cookies since I was a little girl with my Mama, we made them every year at Christmas time and now I make them every year with my daughters.
In your mixer with a flat beater, beat 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter that is at room temperature for about 2 minutes on high. Reduce speed to medium and slowly add 1 cup of sifted powdered sugar until all is mixed in. Add 1 large egg and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract from World Market and beat for l minute. Sift together 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. . Stop the mixer and add half the flour beat at low speed until flour is absorbed. Add the remaining flour until flour pulls away from sides of bowl about 2 minutes.
Turn dough unto a work surface and divide into two equal balls and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Remove from wrap and let sit for 5 minutes.
On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a thickness of 3/16 to 1/4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line baking sheets with parchment, World Market has a variety of prints to choose from that match the seasons, I used my green gingham from Easter time. Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
The trick is to make sure they all have the same thickness so they cook evenly and don't over bake them. Or they will be hard and not soft and that's how we like them soft, not crispy. Take them off the cookie sheet and let them cool on a cooling rack. Cookies need to be completely cooled before you start frosting them.
This is the first time we outlined and flooded our cookies. Go here for a great tutorial on how to make royal icing and how to flood your cookies or here is another great video I saw online but I used the first link for my icing recipe. To achieve the the Aqua Blue jar color we used Wilton's Sky Blue icing color, they are a concentrated form and a little goes along way. For the gray lid we used Ivory Icing and a touch of black.
Once all the cookies are outlined, flooded and dry. We {my daughter and I} freehanded the Ball Jar logo on them.
After adding the details we added a pearly silver sugar mix that we painted on. It addsed a bit of shimmer the cookie lid. You mix a tiny bit of Vodka or you can use almond extract if you want..I happened to have some Vodka on hand so we used that. You only need a small amount I made a Russian mule Cocktail with the rest {only kidding it was only 10 am but I'm sure it was 5 o'clock somewhere}.
When they were all ready, we wrapped them indivdually in chocolate brown tissue and loaded them into the cookie jar.
We added to the jar; their very own mason jar cookie cutter, the mason jar teaspoons, a World Market Gift Card and tied it with a chocolate ribbon with a burlap sunflower with the cute little ball jar tag.
My new neighbors were very happy and surprised with their gift, as you can see she is pregnant with twin girls and has the cutest one year old little boy.
I was challenged by World Market to "Share the Joy" to honor one deserving family or individual and I choose this family because I wanted to show my hospitality and a welcome to the "hood" gift. My new neighbors also happen to be teachers and as a teacher myself I know how much goes into teaching. Welcome New Neighbors, Glad you are here and I'm hoping to build a great Neighborly friendship with you...Hope you like Vodka! {well, actually I'm a wine drinker so I hope you like wine!}
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