Tuesday`s Tutorial {bread in a bottle}

I saw the cutest idea on Sunset.com, for a home-made Christmas gift. You put all of the dry ingredients for a bread recipe in a bottle (or Jar in my case) with the recipe on the back of bottle. If you layer the ingredients carefully, it looks very cute! Here’s how I did it… First I went to the dollar store and bought some 1 Quart Jars. I was really looking for a milk bottle type jar, but had no luck, so I settled for regular jars. Then I came home, ran the jars through the dishwasher and got to work on my labels. I found a Christmas cheer type poem and modified it slightly to make it suit this gift, and put that on the front label along with well wishes from our family. Then I put the recipe on the back label, here is how it turned out.

If you would like to use a printable of my labels, click here for the front label and click here for the back label. If you would like to make your own labels, here is the information you’ll need for the back.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Quick Bread

1. In a large bowl, mix the contents of this bottle: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips.

2. In a small bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 2 large eggs, and 1/4 cup melted butter.

3. Stir wet mixture into dry ingredients just until evenly moistened (batter will be lumpy).

4. Scrape into a buttered and floured 9- by 5-inch loaf pan (with a 9-cup capacity), and bake in a 350° oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Once I finished the labels, I printed them and cut them out. Then I attached double sided tape to the back of the labels in order to get them to stick to the jar. I stuck all of the labels onto the jars before I did anything else.

Once I was done that, it was time to fill the jars! I followed the ingredients list above, and alternated the ingredients to make them look pleasing to the eye. The recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, but I split those cups up so that I didn’t have half of the jar white. I mixed the cinnamon into the brown sugar (which was from Barbados – the best brown sugar in the WORLD!) And I mixed the baking powder, baking soda and salt into one of the cups of flour.

Doesn’t that look cool? I would love to get one of these as a gift – but I might never make the bread, I would just keep it in the jar looking pretty:) Once made, the mix keeps for two to three months at room temperature.

Who will you make Bread in a Bottle for?