Jar mixes - would you want to receive or would you think wtf?

[backonthewagon]

I was thinking of doing muffin or brownie jar mixes where you have to add an egg or candy cane hot choc in a jar. Be honest if you would hate something like this!

Yank yum!

Or to save your recipient the trouble of stirring,
this

My mum's only advice to me on soup making was "never use those bean soup mixes."

Oh goodness, someone reading this will have been giving these mixes for years, won't they? OP I hope the honesty is helpful and not offensive.

I don't bake

Don't enjoy it and I eat enough sweet stuff I don't need without baking my own to add to it

A relative keeps get me this kind of thing because ' I know you don't bake'

Wtf

No, I don't bake AND IM NOT GOING TO

But it's not even soup. It's a pretty jar full of colourful beans, each of which need to be soaked for a different time before cooking and which needs stock and some vegetables and herbs to begin to taste reasonable.

It's a triumph of Pinterest kitsch over substance.

'Oh goodness, someone reading this will have been giving these mixes for years, won't they? OP I hope the honesty is helpful and not offensive.'

The truth hurts.

Even worse than jarred mixes are homemade body scrubs. I feel like sending them a thank you note from the bin when I get those. 'Thanks for feeding me! x, The bin'.

The hot chocolate, marshmallow and choc block spoon sounds nice.

The brownie one is Flour, baking powder and salt
Cocoa powder
Sugar
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows (omit for vegetarians)
Dried fruit
Nuts
Oats

Then you add an egg, stir and bake.

The hot choc one is

Cocoa
Whole Milk powder
Sugar
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows
A flake
Optional crushed candy canes

mammuzzamia Why would you not use the mixes? And why don't you like edible gifts? Are there any edible gifts you like?

Expat, yup.

Although my 8 year old wants to make lip balms this year, which is worryingly similar.

'Although my 8 year old wants to make lip balms this year, which is worryingly similar.'

It's fine for her little friends, but, well, you know.

There was a thread on here years ago, there's one every year with 'homemade gifts'. And one blew up after several posters wrote that they would bin homemade scrubs and someone got all affronted, 'Mine are good!' Yeah, they all think that.

I make lotion bars for us. We like to camp and travel and bars travel well, but I wouldn't give them out as gifts.

I make soap, too, again, for our personal use.

I wouldn't like this and wouldn't use it but if my DD got given one she would love it. Especially if it was for something like cookies and had cookie cutters tied on. Now there's an idea for the Christmas Eve box...

No walnuts in the brownie?

Yes I dis nuts :)

I was given a really pretty chocolate biscuit one from Germany. It was fantastic! The biscuits tasted delicious and out of the ordinary and the friend who popped round took the jar. I don't bake much and I would never use a cake mix, so I am your ideal gift recipient.

But I hope thus isn't going to be the reaction to my damson gin.. I might have to drink it all myself..

Duckdeamon you mentioned earlier hating craft things requiring supervision for the DC. Would you mind the brownie mix, hot choc mix or these hot choc spoons www.thecrazykitchen.co.uk/2013/06/gifts-for-teachers-hot-chocolate-spoons.html for your DC?

I will keep an eye out for this year's thread expat!

Thing is, know your recipient though. Some people are 'meh' about anything home made, so this thread was never going to be 100% pro. I think I'm not alone on this thread, though, to be generally pro HM stuff but specifically not keen on the cake mix thing.

I do feel for Castrovalva though. At least you don't feel obliged to use it.

It's a bit of a pinterest or instagram perfect life, perfect image, type of present. In reality its a glass jar with some flour and stuff that I'd keep in a cupboard until about next October and then bin as I'd probably forget I'd put it there. Pretty to look at though.

Bimblywibble Would you like the hot choc spoon? Or what about the brownie mix, hot choc mix or hot choc spoon as a gift for your DC rather than you?

Ok. I hope you'll prefer honesty.

The hot choc spoons do make lovely little gifts. As a "present for teacher" kind of thing, great, but a bit mean if we normally exchanged £20 gifts IYSWIM. It would suit child or adult. I think the wooden spoons look much nicer than pound shop metal teaspoons. It's a stunning gift for 27p to be fair, but at the end of the day it's only ever one mug of (hopefully) nice hot chocolate.

I don't really see the point of the mixes. I can make Nigella storecupboard brownies so easily, and they don't have oats in! Someone upthread put it right - unless you are the sort of person who loves baking but hates weighing things out, what is the benefit? My children would probably enjoy making the things but they'd be just as happy with a couple of new novelty biscuit cutters, or a rolling pin, which would cost about as much as the jar.

Similar with the hot choc mix really. You can easily buy drinking chocolate, which is cocoa and sugar. Everyone's got milk in the fridge, and fresh milk tastes much nicer than reconstituted milk powder. Hot chocolate doesn't need, or benefit from, being deconstructed any further than drinking chocolate (or actual chocolate) and milk. The bits of chocolate and marshmallows are nice enough. But all in all I would prefer a tin of nice drinking chocolate and some marshmallows. Presumably the recipient has to stir the layers together before they take their first spoonful out anyway. It sounds like a nice thought but I think it's a bit Pinteresty - designed more around the giver being able to make something than the recipient. Sorry. Others will disagree I'm sure.

Oats in brownies.....

Milk powder (like a vending machine) in hot chocolate....

Sorry - revolting. I bake a lot and it doesn't even sound like a nice brownie recipe you're using. I would bin it as I don't even think a food bank would take it.

I just don't see the point in this.
Also how do I know how hygienic the person or their kitchen is.

I would like it :)

mammuzzamia Why would you not use the mixes? And why don't you like edible gifts? Are there any edible gifts you like?

Maybe a sloe or elderflower gin or something along those lines, though I rarely drink. Rightly or wrongly I prefer to know food has been made in fairly hygienic conditions. Still scarred by finding hairs/fibres in what looked like a promising wedge of home made fudge once received as a gift, and a a cake where the icing sugar tasted like washing up liquid. The edible Christmas gift people, if my friends are anything to go by, usually have the children helping out too.

No. Yuck. Sorry.

If you want to give an edible gift, get hold of a kick-arse rocky road recipe. A friend's sister-in-law does one with fancy nuts and really good-quality chocolate in it, and wraps up chunks in pretty cellophane and ribbon. Everyone raves about it.

Or another friend turns crates of fresh mangoes into mango chutney. And a different one does jars of pickled lobster (husband is a lobster fisherman).

As you can see, the common theme here is a starting-point of expensive/high-quality ingredients. If you can't afford that, you're better off going for non-edible gifts (sorry!).

I love home made crap but I don't get this. If you want to bake me a cake, that's fab but don't just give me the ingredients, that's just work!!

I'd never put salt, oats or dried fruit in Brownies and I'd far rather use my own milk than have dried milk in hot chocolate, I don't like the instant mix with boiling water types which have dried milk in.

I've been given a jar mix as a gift before and I loved it! Looks like I'm the odd one out!