Shipping tips for holiday cookie packages

By Jennifer Forker | Associated Press

November 28, 2007

Planning to bake and ship a little love this holiday season?

If you want to make sure your cookies don't end up as crumbs by the time they get to your friends and family, the type of cookies you make can be as important as how you wrap and pack them.

"We've all seen the footage" of shipping operations, says Gary Welling, director of the International Baking and Pastry Institute at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. "Man oh man, things get thrown ... and jostled."

Here's what you need to know:

The cookies

Experts were reluctant to herald one variety of cookie over another, but all agree sturdiness is key. This isn't the time for brittle, delicate or thin-cut cookies with intricate woven sugar decorations.

Whether shipped by the U.S. Postal Service or a private carrier, your package will travel along conveyer belts, be exposed to hot and cold, get handled by several people and possibly rattle for many miles in a truck.

The UPS Store has compiled a list of baked goods its shippers say can take the tumbling and temperatures.

They recommend molasses cookies, peanut-butter cookies, shortbread, sugar cookies, brownies, biscotti and puffed rice treats.

Agnes Hsu, owner of the Teacake Bake Shop in San Francisco, bakes roughly 20,000 cookies a month, many of which she ships. She suggests drop cookies, which tend to be thick.

Also, think small. Small, thick cookies are less likely to break than large, thinner cookies.

The packing

Hsu says the key to shipping cookies is to wrap each one separately. This helps cushion the cookies, prevents them from sticking together and allows you to ship a variety of cookies without the flavors mixing.

For the wrapping, there are plenty of options. Hsu suggests using parchment paper to create sleeves or envelopes for each.

If your cookies need to travel some distance, freshness may be a concern. In that case, consider cling wrap or press-and-seal-style wraps, which lock out the air and lengthen the life of baked goods.

Once wrapped, the cookies should be arranged in a small box or canister. If there is extra space in the box, use crumpled waxed paper, which cushions and helps absorb excess moisture.

Hsu wraps her cookies in small hatboxes. Welling suggests visiting dollar stores for gift boxes and tins.

Or take the UPS Store's creative advice and recycle Pringles potato-chip cans. Cut your cookies to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the can, then stack them (separated by rounds of parchment paper) in the can.

The smaller box or container of cookies then should be placed inside a larger shipping box that is filled with packing peanuts or other packing material. Aim for at least 2 to 3 inches of packing around the container of cookies.

When you think you've got the box packed, close and shake it.

If anything moves, add packing. Air pockets allow the contents to vibrate during transit.

The timing

The most important rule is to take your time, says Marc Haymon, a baking instructor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Haymon advises baking the cookies the evening before mailing them, which gives them about 12 hours to set up.

Even the day of the week matters when shipping food. The pros mostly ship on Mondays and Tuesdays to ensure the packages arrive before the weekend, when the cookies could end up sitting in a warehouse until the next week.

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