I have a sick obsession with holiday baking. (“Sick” like how the kids say it because all my baking is fire.) December is my signal to start baking for friends’ parties, for my own Christmas gatherings, and for shipping to friends near and far. Sending a box full of homemade treats should bring a smile to the faces of those you care for. Make sure they arrive in pristine condition, and not a broken mess of holiday disappointment. Here are the tips I use every year to successfully ship holiday cookies.
1. Select the best cookies for shipping
Some cookies and bars ship better than others. Keep in mind that this box will be getting tossed and rolled on its way to the destination.
Do send. The best cookies to ship are sturdy treats like drop cookies, brownies, bars, thick cookie-cutter cookies, and fudge.
Don’t send. Steer clear of delicate tuiles, almond macarons, or cookies that have runny jam, or sticky frosting.
Anything slab shaped, like brownies, bars, or fudge can be left unsliced. Ship it in a single brick so it makes the journey in one piece, and then recipient can cut it once it arrives.
2. Cool your cookies completely
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
It’s a hectic time, but don’t rush to pack homemade cookies. Wait for your cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before nestling them in the cookie box. Chill them in the fridge briefly if you need to speed things along.
Warm cookies are still flexible—the fats and sugars haven’t set—and any chocolate present will still be molten. Stacking those cookies in a box might cause them to bend, squish, or break. Additionally, if you close up the cookie tin tightly, humidity will build in the box. This could cause bacteria or mold to grow over the course of the shipping time.
3. Pack cookies for shipping
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
It’s hard to resist a variety. While you don’t need to pare down the types of cookies you bake, you should consider how you plan to pack it all. I like to use the term “like with like,” and all that means is to keep similar cookies in the same “room.” Focus specifically on “like” flavors or aromas, and “like” textures. This will prevent treats from changing due to the impact of “un-like” neighbors in the immediate vicinity.
An example of a bad idea: packing soft fig cookies with crisp peppermint shortbread. The soft fig cookies will add humidity to the air and soften the shortbread, messing with the texture—also making them more likely to break. The peppermint aroma could also be absorbed by the fig cookies, which is not exactly how the artist intended it to be experienced. While the scent of chocolate doesn’t tend to seep into other cookies, spice cookies and peppermint can really make an impact.
To prevent this, pack the cookies in separate tins or boxes, or wrap the cookies tightly in plastic wrap or zip-top bags to help separate them. Try to keep soft cookies and bars in airtight packaging so they don’t lose moisture.
4. Try a different cookie “tin”
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Metal cookie tins are relatively air-tight, and freakin’ adorable with their cute patterns, but my friends have told me that they still have their tins from last year. Which ends up being weird storage for them, or trash after the cookies are gone. If you’re shipping cookies year after year, this can be a cumbersome collection.
If you see your giftees often, have them return the tins to you for next year. If not, consider bakery boxes for treats that don’t need to be air-tight, or alternative repurposed containers. Paper dessert boxes can be lighter than cookie tins too, which might shave a dollar or so off your shipping price. Pringles cans, or coffee cans make excellent cookie holders. They might not bear images of polar bears or Santa wearing buffalo plaid, but they’re well-shaped for this honorable duty.
5. Pack holiday cookies securely with alternative packing material
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Packing cookies securely is the final step to ensuring they arrive in pristine condition. It might seem like packing the space between the cookie tin and the cardboard box is good enough, but you’d be mistaken. The space inside the cookie vessel is the enemy too.
The main trick is packing them tightly inside and out. Obviously, pack as many cookies in the container as possible because everyone likes more cookies, and fill the small spaces between the cookies and on top of them. When you put the lid on the material will keep the cookies in place no matter how the box gets tossed around during shipping.
I like to sit my cookies in cupcake liners inside a cookie tin. The ruffled edges tend to fan out and fill up the voids and keep the cookies from moving from side to side. In the space above, I crumple up a sheet of parchment paper and fit it onto the top. Flat parchment is nearly useless, but the crumpling it creates more of a 3-D air buffer that keeps the cookies from bouncing. It’s also flexible so you can still easily snap on the lid.
You could buy packing bubbles or paper packing I suppose, but I always feel wasteful using brand new materials that will immediately get chucked. If you’re receiving boxes in the days before shipping your cookies, save the packaging from those boxes and reuse them.
You can also pack the box with anything that can be repurposed or isn’t terribly wasteful. Use alternative packing materials like all the totes you’ve acquired over the year, folded second-use cardboard, crumpled paper destined for the trash (newspapers or pages torn from mailer catalogs you never asked for), or plain popcorn. Although it’s wasting food, it’s cheap, not particularly nutritious, and you get 7-10 cups of popcorn from four tablespoons of kernels.
Send cookies earlier than you think
While you still have some time, don’t delay on shipping holiday cookies. The U.S. postal service is getting slammed right about now, so don’t risk waiting. Their website gives you a useful chart of shipping deadlines based on the type of service you’ll be using. Faster shipping costs more and buys you a little more time, but not much. For the best bet on your cookies arriving by the 25th, send them by Dec. 18 (for the contiguous 48 states). Then you can rest assured that your friends and family will get their bundle of sweets with plenty of time to enjoy them before Santa comes to take his cut.
