If you like the idea of doing something homemade for gifts this holiday season, consider making jar bread! A sweet, spiced bread baked in a jar (but not canned), it’s a treat that easily delights anyone who receives it.
This is a recipe my mom often made to give as holiday gifts. Our favorite way (and Mom’s way) used applesauce as the base, which keeps it moist. Walnuts and raisins in the filling complement it well.
You can also substitute applesauce with a can of pumpkin, but since it’s more fibrous than applesauce, you’ll need a little extra water to loosen the batter. When using pumpkin, I recommend skipping the add-ins, as it stands nicely on its own.
To dress up the jars a bit, I also have a free Canva template so you can print your own labels!
P.S. This past year, as I started adding recipes to Piano Pantry, I wanted to focus on recipes with memories – whether from childhood or special travels. This Jar Bread recipe ends this year-long focus! It was a good way for me to get my feet wet posting familiar recipes while preserving special memories.
Here’s a quick rundown of all the “memory” recipes I posted over the past year (November 2025 – October 2026)
- Three Sisters Pumpkin Soup
- Creamy Olive & Pecan Spread
- Slow Cooker Sausage, Green Beans & Potatoes
- Pickle Wrap Pinwheels with Beef or Pastrami
- Dutch Fresh Mint Hot Tea
- Olive-Topped Deviled Eggs
- Festive Taco Dip
- Creamy Cauliflower Salad
- Mom’s Perfectly Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Grandma’s Monster Cookies
- Simple Open-Face Tomato Sandwich
- Copycat Maid-Rite Loose Meat Sandwich Recipe
- Chocolate Cinnamon Sheet Cake
- Grandma’s Meatloaf (Even for Meatloaf Haters!)
- Creamy Beef & Cheese Enchiladas (Retro Casserole)
- Jar Bread
What You’ll Need to Make Jar Bread
For this recipe, you’ll need seven pint-size (16 oz) wide-mouth glass mason jars with lids.
I use the Anchor Hocking brand sold at Menards because they’re only $10 for a dozen.
It’s imperative that you use wide-mouth jars and not regular canning jars; otherwise, you won’t be able to get the bread out of the jar!
First, get the jars ready to go. Give them a quick wash and thorough dry, and then spray the insides with non-stick spray.
Doing this in a clean sink helps keep over-spray down.
Also, preheat your oven to 325°F and gather up all of your ingredients:
We use white sugar in this recipe, but you could easily swap it out for brown sugar (or do half white, half brown), or even use coconut sugar for a low GI option.
Make the Jar Bread Batter
Like most baking, you’ll start by whisking all the wet ingredients together in a large bowl and the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, then adding the dry ingredients to the wet ones.
After stirring the dry ingredients into the wet ones with a spatula, give it a quick final whisk to make sure all the flour clumps are broken up.
Then, in a small bowl, toss the raisins with 1 teaspoon of flour and break them up by hand so they’re separated. (Missed a photo of this!)
Add the walnuts to the raisins, then toss everything into the batter.
Fill the Jars and Bake
Fill each jar 2/3 full with batter. I find using a large 4oz ice cream scoop with a trigger like this one the easiest way to scoop the batter into the jars.
Be sure to wipe the rims clean; otherwise, you’ll get baked-on drips.
If you have an oven rack that glides easily and you trust that you can slide it without the jars falling over, place them directly on the rack.
If your rack doesn’t move easily, place them on a cookie sheet to be safe!
Bake at 325°F for 45 minutes.
A cake tester or toothpick should come out clean. You can also use a thermometer. It will read around 200°F.
Carefully remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Let cool completely (about 90 minutes) before putting the lids on.
Don’t worry if the bread pops above the rim—simply press it down as you put the lids on.
(Also, don’t be tempted to do 8 jars; there’s not enough batter to fill them all!)
Consume within a few days, refrigerate up to a week, or even freeze.
To get the bread out, remove the lid, flip it upside down, and give it a good hard shake. It should slide out easily (as long as you greased your jars well). You won’t believe how moist it is. The photo doesn’t do it justice!
Important! The Jars Are For Novelty, Not Longevity
Older jar bread recipes may say to put the lids on while the jars are hot so they seal as they cool. We skip that step for two reasons.
First, cooling lets steam escape. If you put the lid on while the bread is still hot, that steam turns into water inside the jar, which can make the top of the bread soggy and form ice crystals if you were to place it in the freezer.
Second, letting the jars cool keeps them from sealing (and thus incorrectly tricking people into thinking they’re shelf-stable).
Even if the lids seal and “pop,” these jars aren’t canned goods and aren’t safe to keep in the pantry. Real canning involves using a pressure canner or water bath to make food shelf-stable. An oven doesn’t get hot enough to kill the bacteria that cause botulism, and sealing the jar removes the air. Moist bread sitting airless at room temperature is just what those bacteria need to grow, and you can’t see, smell, or taste the problem.
So think of the jar as a fun way to bake and present the bread, not a way to preserve it.
Let the jars cool, put on the lids, consume within a few days, or keep in the fridge for up to a week or the freezer for up to 3 months.
Jar Bread
Ingredients
Method
- Make sure the jars are clean, dry, and at room temperature. Spray the inside of each jar with nonstick spray.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together applesauce (or pumpkin and additional water), oil, sugar, water, and eggs.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add to the wet mixture and mix with a spatula then give a final whisk to get clumps out.
- In a small bowl, toss the raisins (if using) with 1 tsp flour, then mix in the walnuts. Add into the batter and mix well.
- Using a large ice cream scoop, fill each jar 2/3 full. Wipe the rims clean.
- If you have an oven rack that glides easily and safely, place the jars directly on the rack with space between. Otherwise, set the jars on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake for 45 minutes. Check with a skewer – the center should come out clean. You can also use an instant-read thermometer. It should read about 200°F.
- Move the jars to a wire rack, keeping them off cold or wet surfaces. Don’t put the lids on while the jars are hot. Let them cool almost completely about 1-2 hours. If the bread has risen above the rim, that’s not a problem. Simply gently press it down as you put the lid on.
- Eat within a few days. (This is not a canned product so it is not safe to store in the pantry indefinitely.)
Decorating the Jars
I think the jars are beautiful as-is if you want to keep your delivery simple!
If you want to decorate them a bit, though, I’ve made a set of labels in Canva that you can use.
You’ll need a Canva account to access them, and you will also need a Word-Processing document to print your labels.
(Just prompting what technology skills are needed here!) 🙂
The process looks like this:
- Access the Canva template and make any edits you like.
- Export the Canva project to an image file.
- Open a Microsoft Word or Google Doc.
- Set the margins so you can fit multiple images onto one page.
- Upload the image you downloaded from Canva.
- Size it properly (about 2.7″ wide).
- Copy the image and paste it until you have enough images on one page.
- Print in color on heavy card-stock using a high-quality print setting.
- Cut apart, punch holes, and attach to the rims of your jars (I use food-grade butcher twine).
Have no fear, though. I made a tutorial video to walk you through these steps!
