Dear Sunset: Quick Bread in a Bottle Revisited
Dear Sunset.com, we need to talk. Up until now, I’ve enjoyed your decorating ideas, your style tips and your recipes. But recently, I came across an article of yours that left me feeling a little, well, bereft. I think you know what this is about. It’s about your Quick Bread in a Bottle. You teased me with a picture of a beautiful glass bottle and put that adorable little label on the front, but then you ended the article too soon, with only the barest of details for making it myself.
In my quest to duplicate your amazing looking bottles, I’ve had to venture out on my own to find answers to the questions you so cruelly left me with.
The first question I had was where can I find some of those bottles you used, without spending a small fortune.
After spending an unsuccessful day looking for an “independent food market,” and not willing to spend $22 per bottle at an antique mall, I thought about what you said about using quart-size canning jars. But let’s face it, they just don’t have the same wow factor as the glass milk bottles. Otherwise you would have had a canning jar in the picture, right?
I did find these plastic bottles in my local grocery store and wondered if they would work.
So I gave it a try.
But here’s the thing about plastic bottles. They may look like their glass counterparts, but they don’t act like them. No matter how carefully I packed those ingredients in there, the sugar and flour kept sneaking down the sides to hang out with the brown sugar and the rolled oats. That’s not what it looked like in your picture.
So I went in search of glass bottles again, this time on the internet. After a bit of Googling, I found what I was looking for: a dozen quart sized traditional glass milk bottles for $26.95 plus $7.95 shipping from Hoegger Supply Company. That works out to be about $2.91 per bottle. Music to my pocketbook.
And I’m happy to say that I didn’t have to wait long for the bottles to arrive, even with standard shipping. I ordered them on Tuesday, and they arrived on Friday.
The bottle issue resolved, my next question was how did you get all those ingredients to fit in there?
I tried to “tamp each layer well,” but those ingredients refused to play nice and squeeze themselves into the bottle all at once. I secretly suspect that you only used 1/2 cup of oats, to have so much room left at the top of the bottle, but that’s okay. I was finally able to get the ingredients to cooperate, with no omissions. The key was using a wooden dowel, which I just happened to have on hand. You could also use the bottom of a wooden spoon, or really any object with a flat bottom that’s long enough to put through the opening.
I used a paper funnel to get the ingredients in the bottle, and then I layered them in the order listed below. I also split the 2 cups of flour so I would have seven layers, like you did.
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
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1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
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1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
—————————–
1 cup rolled oats
—————————–
1 cup all purpose flour
—————————–
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
—————————–
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Just before adding the chocolate chips, I used a mini-spatula to get the flour off the sides of the glass, and then a paper towel around the neck. That made the glass at the top sparkly clean, like yours, so the next two layers weren’t looking through a foggy haze of flour.
I used the dowel again lightly to compact the mini chocolate chips and then the walnuts. To my amazement, all the ingredients fit perfectly. It’s like you planned it that way or something.
But what are nice glass bottles and layered ingredients if you don’t have a cute little label to put on the front? This was the question that had kept me up at night: where can I find the template for that label? You barely even mentioned it, except to say that you adhered it with double-stick tape.
Since it seemed pretty clear that a template wasn’t forthcoming, I did the only thing left to do. I set to work and created one myself. It took some time and a good bit of negotiating with my computer, but overall I think I came pretty close.
I printed them out onto brown craft paper, which I found on a roll with the wrapping paper at the store, and cut it down to size so it would fit through my printer. Then I used colored pencils to add a little bit of color, just like yours.
I also created a label for the back of the bottle. You didn’t show us what yours looked like, so I put my creative cap on and added a couple of cute illustrations to the instructions and tried to make it look like it belonged with the one on the front.
And while my creative juices were flowing, I also made a gift tag with a little measuring cup, and tied it onto the bottle with some red and white baker’s twine.
So I just wanted to let you know that I figured it all out, okay? And you don’t have to feel bad anymore about leaving me on my own to recreate your bottle. I’m sure it has been weighing on your conscience. But I appreciate all your creative ideas and I hope you keep them coming. I’m not afraid anymore.
And reader, now you can go out and make some bread-in-a-bottle gifts like the one you pinned, too. You can download the template for both the front and back labels, as well as the gift tag here. All I ask in return is that you pretty please take a second and leave some comment love below. Let everyone know who you’ll be making your bottles for, or if you found another source for the bottles, or if you’re using another recipe, or just to say hey. Deal? Thanks a bunch.
And as always, thanks for stopping by!
Linking up to:
Click here to see where this project was featured.
This is hilarious! Thanks so much for doing all the research, typing, designing templates, etc. It’s a huge investment for your readers…..I pray you will be blessed beyond measure! I never wanted to make food in a jar….but this post yields an amazing gift that even I want to make. Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful season of giving! Lyndaoflakeland.blogspot.com
This is just hilarious!! I often “make” mixes for friends and neighbors. They never come out as pictured- but then neither do my hamburgers at Wendy’s. This helps so much! Thanks for figuring this out for all the regular folk!!
Oh my goodness. I love what you have done! In my mind, I was thinking of baking for neighbors but if they have this they can bake when they are ready…and not overloaded. Thank you so much for doing all of this!
That is such a cute gift idea!
I hope I have time to make some.
Thanks for sharing,
Deb
Wow Debbie, you have just given all your followers a wonderful gift idea complete with the recipe + a tutorial, for how to make the label & gift tag for all their neighbors, & not so close friends. How lucky they are. I’m in the process of making biscuits which will be gift wrapped in a cute little box. I might even steal your idea & give it as a gift to one of my close French friends.
Thank you so much for sharing all your hard research to make ‘Bread in bottle’.along with your hilarious pitfalls before you succeeded with a perfect result. Love your post. Best wishes Barbara
Debbie,
This is just brilliant! I love the project and love the story! Thanks so much for all your due diligence and inspiration!
Did I say brilliant?
:) Linda
This is such a cute idea and I love you gave us the info for the glass bottles! Saw your idea on Pinterest and had to check it out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for this! The label is the cutest part of this gift. But I want to use it for cookies. Wish I could just print yours. You did a fabulous job of making it! Can you tell me the font you used to create it??
Hi Pam, I wasn’t able to find a font that worked, so I actually wrote each letter with a fine tipped black pen, and then scanned it into my computer. Maybe you could do something like that?
Debbie
I love it so that I’m going to use this as my favor for my cookie exchange next year. Thank you so much for all your hard work.
So cute! I’d love for you to share this or any of your great ideas at the link party going on now (and every Tuesday – Saturday) at ‘Or so she says …’ Hope to see you there! http://www.oneshetwoshe.com
Love this gift. Your pictures are beautiful and your description hilarious! Definitely pinning!
Elena
acasarella.net
That was awesome! I think Sunset owes you a job. This was super helpful because I’m planning on doing a cookie recipe in a jar and you answered some of my questions. Basically, you did all the hard research and I’m grateful! Love that I found your blog on Debbiedoo’s. I’m, sadly, a no-reply blogger (apparently, an unfixable curse) but you can reach me at Shannon@smcbydesign.com.
Debbie, These are adorable gifts. I can’t imagine anyone not being thrilled to receive one of these. Thanks for sharing how they are made.
They are adorable! The perfect gift! I had so much fun reading your post, that’s usually the case, many pretty things but you’re left with not good instructions on how to do it without losing your mind! Thanks for taking that extra step!
Debbie, you are such an amazing blogger to do all that research and then share it with your readers. I love the way your bottles came together. Such a great gift idea!
Thanks a lot for this awesome instructions! I was wondering how to pack the ingredients to keep them separated. I’m gonna make bottled bread for my aunt and for my brother’s girlfriend for christmas. I live in Poland and we have something called milk-machine here. It’s like cash mashine but what you pull out from that machine is fresh milk not money ;). You can use your own bottle or buy one from the machine – it’s made of glass and looks exactly like traditional glass milk bottle.
For sure I will use your great labels, I’ll just retype instructions in polish.
And that’s my bottled-bread, it’s really great, thank you again!
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7894/img8086k.jpg
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5291/img8083o.jpg
Debbie:
This is going to be the hit of our Christmas party! Thank you for helping me create an unforgettable gift for my girlfriends and family! I appreciate all of your hard work on the labels and the instructions–I have been thinking about making this gift for a while but hadn’t quite figured how to do it justice. Thanks again for going the extra mile for all of us!!
Hi Debbie, I just found your blog via Debbiedoo’s and I think it’s great! I am your latest follower! Hope you stop by and check out my blog too! http://www.mendezmanor.com
Love your labels! Thanks for the info on the bottles. Have you tried the bread? Is it as good as it sounds?
:)
Kelly
Hi Debbie,
Thank you so much for all your work and for sharing. Your letter to Sunset had me giggling the whole way through – very clever! I made the bread in a bottle to give to my girl friends. I should call it bread in a cannister though. I don’t have much time so I picked up four 1 litre cannisters from the dollar store and although they don’t look as nice as the bottle, it worked out quite well. I just had to add a little extra walnuts to fill it to the top. I can’t wait to check out the rest of your site!
Thanks again,
Aline
Thank you SOOOOOOO much for this! I had this pinned for making for my mum and mum in law this year and went to make them today only to find the details laking on the original site. Then I saw the link someone left bringing me here. All your details have made it so simple and they only took me a hour including all the tags and labels and ribbons etc. And they look amazing! Thanks so much!
Anna
Christchurch, New Zealand
This was a wonderful post and you definitely spilled all the secrets to re creating it successfully! It’s a little piece of art :) I’m featuring your tutorial today at Fox Hollow Cottage.
what a cute post. saw you over at Shannon’s. I have always wanted to recreate something like this hoping that it would turn out as pretty as yours. Thanks. I will be back to visit!
Love the post! I went and ordered the bottles, on my way to get paper to run off your labels and can’t wait to get started! This was a great post and I love how you explained to use the dowel…I would have cried if it didnt fit.
Thanks,
Debbie
Thank you so much! I was making these for gifts and I was all set to make my own labels and I thought I’d look to see if she left a link to make her labels. You saved me! Love your blog!
Hey! You are very creative! Thank you for figuring it all out and sharing it with us. I just read the Sunset article and figured nice but it is not realistic to make, but with your article it is at least a possibility to make it. Thanks again!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was so helpful and has without a doubt saved me lots of time & money. WOOHOO! Great job.
Found you via Cowgirl Up! How clever you are and tenacious! Love that in a person. I give a nut gift for Christmas to my coworkers but the recipe is secret. I am considering using this bottle idea but won’t include the recipe!! You are wonderful for sharing all these great details!
Debbie, your resourcefulness and humor paid off! Great post and I love how your bread-in-a-bottle turned out. Pinning :)
<3 Christina at I Gotta Create!
Wildly Original link party is open.
Thanks for doing all the work and giving us a great tutorial. I am pinning i.
Debbie, thank you for the step by step instructions for the cute gift project! I hope to borrow this idea and make them for neighbors & my girlfriends/prayer partners. Merry Christmas!
You get an A+ for creative writing, presentation and humor. I loved your post. Your journey to a pretty finished gift is just like the kind of adventure I would take. Thanks for a wonderful read over breakfast.
That’s so awesome you went to all that effort to figure it out! The milk we buy actually comes in those glass jars, which I normally return for the 2 dollar deposit, but sometimes I keep them because they’re just so darn cute. Since I have 3 or 4 of them on hand, I may just make a few of these as xmas gifts! My only question is whether you know of any other recipes for this jar size – perhaps that don’t have buttermilk? How many people have buttermilk on hand??
Hi Alicia! I frequently use lemon juice + milk as a substitute for buttermilk. For this recipe, you would use 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice + enough milk to equal 1 1/2 cups, let it sit for about 5 minutes and then you’re good to go.
Debbie
Awesome, thank you so much!!! I could include that in the instructions as a substitute. I’ve done that once before with lime I think, for a scone recipe. Good thinking!!
Debbie, Thanks so much for doing the legwork on this one! I had saved the image/recipe sure that she would post the label-it truly makes the gift! I will be making this for family for the holidays-can’t wait to try! I have found the perfect milk bottles at the grocery, we will be drinking lots more milk! Thanks again! You are so talented!
i love this so much and its great to see the imperfect side of it because that is usually the first attempt. thank you so much! i am making them as bosses gifts.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!! I was trying to recreate that label and I am computer challenged, so you have saved me SO much time! They are adorable!!
Love the letter, too. It’s a hoot!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing the bottle source, tips & labels! Will be making these for my girls’ teachers this year.
Thank you SO much for the PDF labels and tag!!!!
My first time visiting your blog (found it through A Long Thread.) what a hoot. Loved this post and your style.
This is my first Christmas trying DIY gifts and you just made my elf work SOOO much easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your hard work and generosity in sharing everything you have learned even down to the template. THANK YOU!!
Thank you for providing the labels. A group of ladies from my church make gift jars every year and this is to be one of our choices. Thanks for saving me alot of time and giving me a cuter label to offer everyone.
You’re awesome! This made me laugh and was truth :-) I just wish I would have found it a month ago (no time now to order those awesome milk bottles) But I’ll make my mason jars look cute somehow!
Has none actually baked the bread to taste it? Curious if it is good!
Thank you for taking the time to make the template. I’m making them for my Aunts and Cousins. I finally get to spend Christmas with them this year since we are celebrating it early and wanted to take something for all of them. I created it in a mason jar and had trouble with putting the flour on the bottom. Everything above wanted to sink through. The next one I placed the white sugar on the bottom then brown. I also split the flour up and placed it on either side of the oats. I did not place the nuts in though using a quart jar I couldn’t fit anything else in. Have you worked with any of the other items on the same blog? I did the peppermint stick hot cocoa and it is very cute also. (though no label was provided there either :) ) Thanks again for the help.
Love! Thank you for all the hard work….
Thank you for all your hard work, it made it super easy for me to make this bottle for my mom this christmas. I love how you ordered the ingrediënts according to the layers, that was a real help!
I made my own label since I needed it in dutch for my mother and used a glass juice bottle, it’s round and less pretty but it fir perfectly!
here’s my result: http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q719/PinterestEI/broodfles_zpsc1c8f3fb.jpg
Thank you–this was perfect! Just what I was looking for…used it for my teachers gifts!
You are so right, the milk bottle really makes it extra special! Well, along with your adorable labels! I am going to save this in a folder. I’m overloaded for fun things to do this year but will be putting it on my list for next year! Great job and thanks for sharing! Hugs, Meghan
You essentially just saved Christmas for me, thank you !
Thank you so much!! I was so excited to find this with a template and instructions on the best was to layer the ingredients. Thanks again for your hard work!
I can’t wait to try these! I HAVE to have the milk bottles! Too bad I want to give them as a gift tomorrow. Did you try Hobby Lobby? I just started following you on Pinterest, and though I bake and craft, I’m not much of a DIYer. I will definitely be visiting your blog to be inspired!
Melissa
You are AMAZING! Thank you! I just saw this today on their site, and was immediately stressing, I need that label! I need that bottle! I need more info! and I happened to scan the comments and found you, so THANK YOU! Love that you did this SO MUCH!
Just found your blog through “One Good Thing By Jillee”
Love your site name. My house is filled with upcycling, recipe inventing, Ikea hacking (and many other stores) and DIY projects. I never realized how much I did until my son brought his girlfriend over for the first time (knew right then she would be my D-in-L). He took her all around the house showing my adaptations– the “tour” took about 35 min. Ideas just pop into my head (its a blessing and a curse). I love to see what others do because their techniques save me lots of trial & error. What is really frustrating is when I need something & can’t find it in the stores– all I can think is “do I have to make everything myself?” I love your laundry room makeover. I have a laundry room now for the first time ever. It’s not a big as yours but it is wonderfully productive & pretty at the same time. Had fun making the sign–”No Dirty Laundry Here, Just Clothes Waiting To Be Washed” Wish you all the success you can stand.
Me again–sorry. Got so excited about your site I forgot to ask my question.
I saw you packed down the brown sugar–did it harden; was there trouble getting it out of the bottle? What do you think of a half batch (maybe it would fit in a “free” Snapple bottle). I like my gifts to be as least expensive as possible because I don’t want someone to think they are obligated to gift me in return. Also I like your plastic one–it would be cute with powdered milk, baking soda & oats, maybe also lavendar buds, rose petals or rosemary sprigs as a bath treatment. I think I would mix up the ingred. before adding to the bottle and tie a little organza bag to it so it can be filled as needed and not clog up the drain. I think plastic is needed ’round the tub.
Oh Charlene, I LOVE the idea of a bath treatment! And yes, plastic would definitely be the way to go around the tub. WONDERFUL idea. Would be a fun little Valentine’s gift, too, wouldn’t it? And a half-batch in the Snapple bottle…another good one! You could bake it in a little half-loaf pan. You should have a blog!! I can just tell that the ideas are falling out of your head all over the place, aren’t they? :) To answer your question, the brown sugar did in fact harden a little when I made it in the plastic bottle. I’m not sure if it was because I had packed it so tightly or not, but it was nothing a good sturdy wooden spoon couldn’t take care of. I gave all of the glass ones away that I made, so I don’t know if the brown sugar in them had hardened as well, but if I had to guess, I would say it probably did. Either way, it still made a nice loaf of bread.
LOVE your bottled goodness!!! You did an awesome job of recreating! I will be using this someday! (maybe next Christmas!) Thanks for your awesome templates!!! Now off to do that May calendar before it is June ;-)
Nancy