Mail Cookies

There are many good reasons for sending cookies through the mail. Maybe you want to cheer up a homesick friend who is far away from home for the holidays, or maybe you want to send cookies to your son or daughter so he or she can get a taste of home while being away at college. Whatever your reason, mailing cookies is easy as long as you choose the right cookies and learn to mail and package them correctly. If you want to mail cookies without having them crumble or go stale, just follow these steps.

Steps

Prepare to Mail the Cookies

  1. Choose the right cookies. If you want your cookies to stay fresh in the mail, then you should avoid sending soft, buttery, or moist cookies, because their moisture will make them more likely to deteriorate. Instead, opt for cookies that are drier and more crisp, such as shortbreads, sugar cookies, biscotti, or crisp gingerbread cookies. Here are some other types of cookies that you can send:[1]
    • Cookies that have a slightly chewy texture, like chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle, and white chocolate-cranberry cookies.
    • Macaroons and Pignoli. Though these cookies are more chewy and moist, their textures actually improve after a few days.
  2. Plan to mail the cookies as quickly as you can. If you bake the cookies on a Saturday afternoon, then they won't ship until Monday, which means you've wasted almost two full days of cookie freshness. Try baking the cookies the morning of the day you're going to send them, or at least the night before.[2]
    • If you want to consider a faster shipping method, you can also choose to express-ship the cookies through UPS or FedEx, or to send them as Priority or Express mail through your local post office.
    • If you're mailing them over the holidays, make sure you send them enough days in advance that they get to their recipient before the holiday and don't end up waiting in a warehouse because the mail will be closed for a day or two during the holiday season.
  3. Package the cookies shortly after you bake them. Once you've baked your cookies, you should let them cool for a while to get rid of any additional heat or moisture and to let them harden a bit. If you package them immediately after you take them out of the oven, you'll be packing them in with the moisture and heat, which will make them spoil faster. But once they've cooled, you should package them as quickly as you can to maximize their freshness.[3]

Package the Cookies

  1. Cushion each cookie. Take the time to cushion each individual cookie, or each pair of cookies with the flat bottoms placed together. You should use plastic wrap, cellophane bags, or foil to wrap the cookies without leaving any room for air or moisture. You can even wrap them twice if you're using plastic wrap or foil to maximize their freshness.[3]
  2. Separate each cookie by type. You should pack the crunchy cookies together, and the softer cookies together, or the crunchy cookies will get soft and the softer cookies will get crunchy. You don't need to place them in separate containers to separate them by type, but you should separate them with resealable bags, or even cellophane goodie bags if you want to be fancy.
    • If you're only shipping one type of cookie, then you can put sheets of waxed paper between the layers of the cookies.
  3. Choose your container. Use a Snapware container, tin container, or at least a plastic food storage container to store the cookies. The container will need to be able to be sealed tightly with a lid, so if you use a tin container, you'll need to tape around the lid to make sure that the lid doesn't pop off while the container is in transit.
  4. Line the container. Once you've chosen your container, you should line it with cookie-cradling packing materials, such as crumpled waxed or parchment paper, crumbled up newspaper or thick paper, bubble wrap, or foam peanuts. You can also stuff resealable bags with real popcorn and use that as stuffing, so the recipient will receive an extra treat as well as an even more buttery and delicious-smelling package.[1]
    • If you want the cookies to stay fresh, then you'll need to use to package the cookies tightly so that they don't have room to bounce around or fall apart.
    • On the other hand, make sure you don't pack them too tightly, or they'll get squished and will lose their original texture.
  5. Place the cookies in a container. Once you've individually wrapped the cookies and separated them by type, you should place them in the container, so that they're surrounded by the stuffing. Once you've placed them in the container, you can use stuffing to fill the top of the container and to fill any empty holes, as long as you don't seal the container too tightly. Then, seal the container with tape or tie it tightly with ribbon.
  6. Place the container in a heavyweight cardboard shipping box. If the container doesn't fit snugly into the box, then add more bubble wrap, foam peanuts, crumpled newspaper, or any other stuffing material to keep the container from shifting -- try to have at least 2 in. (5 cm) of stuffing around the sides of the container. Try lightly shaking the box once you've filled it with stuffing -- if you hear the container bouncing around, then you'll need to use more stuffing. Write the recipients address inside the box for extra measure, in case the outer address is lost.[2]
    • When you're done, seal the box with packaging tape.
    • Write "Perishable" and "Fragile" on all sides of the box.
  7. Address the box. Write the recipient's name and address, as well as your own name and address, on the box, and include the correct amount of postage. Most likely, you'll need to take it to the post office to mail it and find out the postage fee, unless you requested a special shipping service.
  8. Mail it. Once you've packed the cookies in the box and addressed it, there's nothing left to do but to mail the cookies to your recipient -- whether it's through your local post office, Fed Ex, or UPS, and wait to receive a call about how amazing the cookies were.

Tips

  • Alert those receiving the cookies that their gift is coming (unless it's a surprise).
  • Tell the post office you are shipping food.

Warnings

  • Expect some (or a lot) of breakage.
  • The homemade cookies could arrive stale.

Things You'll Need

  • cookies
  • vacuum pack machine (optional)
  • Zip-Lock bags (optional)
  • packaging material
  • mailing box

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://allrecipes.com/howto/mailing-cookies/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/christmas-ideas/packing-guidelines-for-cookies-dec06
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.chow.com/food-news/66414/how-to-ship-cookies-and-other-treats-for-the-holidays/
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