<p>I want to send my daughter homemade cookies in a care package, and would appreciate any tips for packing, selection, etc. I would love to send snickerdoodles or choc. chip, but I was unsure which kind stay freshest the longest. Also, any favorite recipies??? I am planning on sending via ground delivery because of the other things I am including, and I understand that takes around 4 days, UPS. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Too easy. </p>
<p>Send more cookies, cakes, candy, all to be used as packing material. Something is bound to be damaged and what is not damaged should be still good. Comfort foods are good but beware of the 15. </p>
<p>Our experience has been good. Very little damage occurs. Fedex Ground or UPS both equally acceptable. Both traceable by using the tracking number.</p>
<p>I’ve been sending cookies for many years while D was away at HS, not only to D, but to her friends whose families were 1000 plus miles away. It was only an overnight mail delivery then, so I could send just about any cookie. Now, at college, delivery is the third day after sending. I think I’ll send gingersnaps as they travel well and age well.</p>
<p>I think my recipe is from the Better Homes Cookbook (red and white plaid cover) pm me if you want the recipe.</p>
<p>Oh, and I usually use the gallon ziploc or a tin w/waxed paper. With a tin you don’t need to worry much or use too much packing in the box around the tin.</p>
<p>Now you’ve got me thinking I need to start baking! Thought I had a free weekend!</p>
<p>popcorn works well as packing material & it also absorbs the extra moisture from the air</p>
<p>Wife did Boscotti bricks (dunkin in milk) and fruitcake bombs.</p>
<p>Put the cookies in a tin and surround tightly with crumbled wax paper. Tape the lid shut and fill in any extra space in the mailing box with those dreaded styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap or whatever you have lying around.
Some cookies, like pecan balls and any kind of moist ball type cookies actually taste better after they’ve aged a bit. Think choc chip is probably the all-time favorite though. Maybe splurge for fast shipping if it’s a birthday or special occasion.
Just don’t do what my mother did to my poor brother at Hobart back in the late 70’s, and send a chocolate bunny at Easter. He never lived it down!</p>
<p>I just recently sent Cowboy cookies (oatmeal with chocolate chips) to be daughter in college out of state. They travel very well and hold up without refrigeration. They were still moist when she received them. PM me if you would like the recipe.</p>
<p>I don’t have the link, but this was the topic of another thread. From which I saved the following; seemed to me to be the sine qua non of cookie-sending tips
</p>
<p>Sorry, author unknown, so can’t credit the genius properly.</p>
<p>I woke up to a page of great ideas! WOW–I am new to this, and I am amazed. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Seeing this thread reminded me of a funny college cookie package memory. My wonderful roommate’s father was a postmaster. It seemed to say something about the family’s confidence in the postal system that cookie packages arrived packed as if they were going to be dropped from a plane. One time her mother sent a treasure trove of cookies in two tin coffee cans (probably now obsolete) secured to each other (to make a sizeable tube) with layers of duct tape. We got the paper off, but could not get into the tube. (Had not been gifted with one of those tool kit gifts I now give graduates–that includes a box cutter!) We tried everything to get them out, surrounded by floormates who were anticipating the cookies. Ironically, I don’t remember now how or where we finally found a tool to free them, but the laughter as we tried various things (iincluding some kind of tug of war) was pretty fun…Needless to say the cookies took a beating in the extraction process but I’m sure we consumed every crumb…</p>
<p>Another tip. If you decide to do chocolate chip, you can do them in bar form instead of cookie form, and if you really want them fresh, send the whole thing off uncut. (That way your child will only have to steal a knife from the dining hall to enjoy them. ;))</p>
<p>Agree that popcorn is an excellent space filler.</p>
<p>SBMom, the only danger with that is, the kids will be tempted to eat off the whole thing! Dang moms, always tempting us with the most decadent food…</p>
<p>I baked cookies for my brother. I was at school on the west coast & he was homesick on the east coast. I packed them carefully & sent them via the US postal service. He got them MUCH later & said they were all so stale he tossed them all. Never sent him another care package & was CRUSHED! Glad others have had better success than I did.
I’m still leary of sending home-baked anything after that experience. :(</p>
<p>I send my kids cookies all the time and a “make your own birthday cake” on their birthdays. Cookies I pack in the plastic containers the take-out comes in, then I wrap them in bubble wrap and use newspaper to fill in the extra space n the box. All types of cookies seem to arrive freash and unscathed, though I do admit to sending them priority. The containers are pretty flat (I often send more than one), so they sometimes fit in the flat rate boxes. The birthday box usually contains 2 homemade cake layers, wrapped in foil, then in ziploc bags. I add a container of frosting, a bag of coconut, candles and a tube of icing for writing. I include explicit assembly directions and, of course, party hats and plates a the gifts. My boys have both enjoyed assembling their birthday cakes and having their homemade cake to share.
Nothing like goodies from home…no matter what time of year!</p>
<p>If you use popcorn for the packing, be sure it is PLAIN. Aunt sent us cookies once packed with buttered popcorn and all the cookies tasted like stale popcorn!!
This AM I found cello trick or treat bags at the dollar store to send little treats to DDs and the roommates and friends. Portion control is key.</p>
<p>jmmom-
So the bubblewrap AND bread are actually in the tin with the cookies BEFORE the tin is closed?</p>
<p>If you’ve seen the laptop boxes, use the same concept. Basically, you suspend the laptop between two sheets of plastic in the middle of the box. A computer store may be able to supply you with one.</p>
<p>baseballmom- I’m just the transcriber and haven’t actually tried it. But I interpreted it that the bread was inside the cookie container and the bubble wrap outside of it.</p>
<p>My dad’s gf sent me cookies with bread in the tin. The cookies were still soft, but in sort of a weird way–they didn’t seem old or stale, but they didn’t seem super-fresh. That might have had to do with the baking, but I’m not sure. They were pretty ok, though, and I was very grateful for the thought. I told her they were fantastic of course! Shhhh, don’t ever tell. </p>
<p>My friend’s mom sends him cookies in long, flat tupperware containers and they’re always great. I feel bad for her, though, because she clearly misses him like crazy. It’s very sweet. </p>
<p>When I was in Argentina last year, my host mom would mail her son meat! It was a special cut that she would trim and kind of roll up with vegetables and things inside. Then she would use a special press to squeeze it I think, although I really don’t remember whether she would cook it before or after pressing it. Next she would freeze it, wrap it in plastic wrap and tinfoil, and over-night it to him in the capital. He loved to get the homemade food and he could slice it and eat it in sandwiches.</p>
<p>It’s true that everyone here seems to miss homemade food. I want my mom to bring tupperware full of her cooking when she comes to visit…I don’t know whether she’d do it, though. </p>
<p>Sorry for the random rambling…</p>