DON'T BE A CRAPPY PACKAGER

December 8, 2012 7:06 PM

Chow.com tells you how to ship cookies and other treats for the holidays: "You don't want to ship any cookie or baked good that won't hold up for three to five days sitting around your house in the container you plan to ship in. Not sure? Do a test batch and see what happens."

Butter company Land O'Lakes's How should I pack cookies for mailing?
Shipping tips:
-"Use a durable, rigid box or empty tin as a mailing container. Place bubble wrap in the bottom of the container, then line the container with aluminum foil or plastic food wrap that is large enough to wrap over the cookies when the container is full.
-Wrap four to six cookies of the same size together in aluminum foil, plastic wrap or plastic bags. Double-wrap cookies if shipping more than one kind or flavor, so flavors do not blend.
-Don’t pack crisp and soft cookies together."

Good Housekeeping's Packing guide for holiday cookies.
Shipping tip: "Plan ahead. Cookies shipped on a Thursday will sit in a warehouse all weekend, so mail early in the week."
Sample recipes: Figgy bars and chocolate chip jumbos.

Martha Stewart Living's Best Cookie Recipes for Shipping.
Shipping tip: Double box, and include 2 to 3 inches of packing material on all sides.
Sample recipes: Apricot-pistachio icebox cookies, Double chocolate coconut cookies, and white chocolate gingerbread blondies.

Huffington Post's 10 homemade Christmas cookies you can mail. Includes cranberry pistachio biscotti and gluten-free Italian hazelnut cookies.

The Kitchn on mailing food to U.S. troops overseas and their best goodies for care packages (including non-cookie options sweet and salty cinnamon almonds and rosemary roasted cashews, as well as Earl Grey tea cookies.)

(Related from the gray: Deadline to sign up for the MeFi cookie swap is Sunday, Dec. 9 at 4:25 p.m. EST.)

posted by purpleclover (9 comments total)

I was confused by this link at first because I read it with the fandom definition of ship as the verb whereby you smoosh two things next to each other and say NOW KISS.
posted by kavasa at 7:30 PM on December 8, 2012 [11 favorites]

This is great, but I set my browser to block cookies. And now Santa doesn't come to my house anymore.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:34 PM on December 8, 2012

"Not sure? Do a test batch and see what happens."

Just to be sure, send some to me and I'll tell you if they were still good.
posted by 445supermag at 7:49 PM on December 8, 2012 [7 favorites]

oh kavasa, when I GMOFblog, I'm going to ship the hell out of chocolate-chip cookies and rosemary roasted cashews.
posted by purpleclover at 8:28 PM on December 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was confused by this link at first because I read it with the fandom definition of ship as the verb whereby you smoosh two things next to each other and say NOW KISS.

OTP: Oreo/Thin Mint.
posted by The Whelk at 9:25 PM on December 8, 2012

That is not a Candy Cane Joe-Joe?
posted by purpleclover at 9:39 PM on December 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

None of those mention the technique I learned: pack your box of cookies with slices of bread. The bread gets stale and the cookies don't.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:10 AM on December 9, 2012

The author of the first link has sent me boxes of cookies the last few years, and while I can't honestly say I have paid that much attention to the packaging, I can attest that they generally arrive whole and wonderful, despite crossing a border at Christmastime.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:44 AM on December 9, 2012

The only problem with the Chowhounds suggestion is that those goodies are unlikely to survive in my house for the five-day waiting period.
posted by rpfields at 8:30 AM on December 9, 2012