How to Ship and Gift Cookies Like a Pro

Packing and shipping cookies correctly ensures they'll get to where they need to be in one piece. Decorate your boxes to add a little extra holiday cheer.

As a food blogger, people expect you to be their leading expert on all things food and cooking. And although I do love food (a lot) and do a lot of food-related research and reading, I am by no means an expert. Although I once dreamed of going to culinary school, I realized that it’s just not in the cards for me right now. Even then, I can imagine culinary grads are better at some techniques than others.

Thankfully, I am well versed in the art of cookie making, cookie gifting, cooking transporting and cookie eating. These yummy treats require a lot of “testing” before you know the batch is perfect. I’m an expert cookie tester too 🙂

Sometimes during the holidays we can’t always see everyone that we’d like to. It’s a bummer, but sometimes it just happens to work out that way. I’ve found that there’s nothing that makes someone’s day brighter than receiving a batch or two of cookies in the mail. Usually our mail is a big collection of coupons and other miscellaneous marketing mailers, so receiving a batch of cookies from friends or family would be fantastic!

Last year I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and had an awesome time packaging up three separate dozens of cookies off to my selected bloggers. Although the cookie swap didn’t take place this year, I thought it could still be beneficial to share how I shipped my cookies to get them to their recipients safe, sound and delicious.

I sent off three batches of White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies to my blogger recipients and wanted to be sure that they arrived safely at their destination. I actually received a batch of really cute panda cookies that were a little broken. They were adorable and delicious, but for the amount of work that she put in, it really stunk to have cookies break in transit.

https://instagram.com/p/_Cw4Y0IyAu/

For starters, I packaged these in festive treat bags and made sure to not pack too many into a bag at once. I sent a dozen cookies, so each bag contained 6 cookies and a half of a slice of bread. The bread is a little trick that we use in these here parts to keep the cookies super soft and pillowy. Then I tied them tight with the twist tie provided.

Next up, I packed up the bags into another festive holiday box. I know I’m going out on a limb here, but if anyone has seen The Emperor’s New Groove (a Disney movie where David Spade voices a pompous emperor turned llama), you’ll understand my method of putting one thing in a box and then another thing in a box.

I put the holiday box with the holiday baggies inside into a larger shipping box that I picked up at Target. I’m sure your nearby post office location has boxes as well, but I wanted to decorate our boxes at home so I opted to buy them at the store and then bring them home.

After tucking away the box of cookies with a few holiday Kit Kats, a festive cookie cutter and a handwritten note card, I made sure the goodies wouldn’t be moving around inside the box by padding it with those air padding bubbles that often come in other packages you have shipped to your house. So if you’ve ordered things to your house, try to reserve a few extra sleeves of bubble wrap or those big air pocket things. They will come in VERY HANDY and save you some money by not having to go out and buy more!

A few handy tips and pointers:

• Try not to ship delicate cookies. As much as everyone loves a beautiful French macaron, those are probably best to be brought by hand to a holiday party. Sturdy cookies will work best - a classic chocolate chip, shortbread, sugar, peanut butter or oatmeal would be perfect. Use your discretion when shipping cookies.

• Try to bake the cookies as closely to the shipment time as possible. Since you can’t be quite sure how long it’ll take to ship them, it’s best to not send cookies that you’ve had out on the counter top for a day already spend 2-3 days in transit.

• When in doubt, always add more protective elements. It’s better to be safe than sad your cookies turned into crumbs and dust.

Tell me, what type of cookie(s) will you be baking this holiday season? Do you ship them out to friends and family far away?

Wondering what to ship? Here are a few cookie ideas!

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies

White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies