Gift In A Jar

I'm exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love Christmas and all the fun that goes with it. And as much I love baking too, it's a lot of work. I decided this year to make gifts to give to teachers, far away friends, and my husband's co-workers. I happened to have a chance to catch Paula Deen the other week and she was making gifts in a jar. Now, I did this a few years ago with hot chocolate mix and I really thought it turned out great. But Paula was talking about a recipe called Five Layer Bars. They sounded so good I knew I had found the gift idea I needed. So I make the gifts, all 17 of them, yesterday. Let's just say I'm glad I'm done! Along with the making the mix in the jar, I added a wooden spoon for decoration. I could not fit the graham cracker crumb bag in the jar so I'll just attach those somehow. I also made a batch of these yesterday from some of the leftover ingredients. They are unbelievably good and so easy to make, at least once you have the jar!

Five Layer Bars

Five Layer Bar Mix

1/2 cup chopped pecans (again, I used walnuts)

1 cup butterscotch morsels

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs

To Make Bars:

1 jar Five Layer Bar Mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

In decorative jar, layer pecans, butterscotch morsels, coconut, and chocolate morsels. Spoon graham cracker crumbs into a small plastic or cellophane bag and place on top of the layers.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove graham cracker crumbs from jar. Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle remaining ingredients of mix over the layers. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into bars.

The graham crackers did not completely cover the bottom of the pan so you could make it 2 cups if you wanted more.



"Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness."
-Richard Bach

"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another."
-Thomas Hughes

"Everyone is gifted - but some people never open their package."
-unknown