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Wondering the best cookies to ship?
Wanting to know the best cookies to send in the mail without them crumbling everywhere or ending up in a giant pile of cookie dough when they arrive?
I’ve got you covered!
I’ve shipped cookies both domestically and internationally, and there are a few basic things to remember when deciding the best homemade cookies to ship, as they all share some things in common.
Namely, they’re relatively hard and not extremely soft cookies that will arrive in a pile of mush.
They also don’t have buttercream or glaze icing on them, which is hard to get to dry.
They have some sort of structure and sturdiness to them that helps protect them when the mailperson gets a little crazy.
And, they’re all cookies that, wrapped up in saran wrap and other airtight packaging, will actually still be delicious once they arrive at their destination as they have a longer shelf life than some other cookies that will instantly dry out.
Here are my recommendations for the best cookies to ship to family and friends, including my favorite recipes for each type.
1. Shortbread
Shortbread is a very hard and well-structured cookie that only takes about 3 ingredients to make, so it’s super easy to ship of a big batch.
It’s also really flexible in how you cut it.
Cut into squares, rectangles, triangles, or send the whole batch as one giant block of shortbread.
It has a smooth surface which makes it easy to put the shortbread cookies up next to each other in the packaging, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to arrive mostly in tact.
2. Decorated Cookies with Royal Icing
If you want to ship cookies with icing, make sure to use royal icing.
This icing makes beautifully decorated cookies and it dries hard, which is what we want when stacking cookies in the packaging and shipping them around the world.
I’ve sent royal icing cookies from the UK to Texas and they arrived just fine – score!
3. Butter Cookies or Spritz Cookies
Another cookie with some great structure is the butter cookie.
You’ve got the option of sending a plain butter cookie, or you could also get creative with Spritz cookies (you’ll recognize the shapes when you see the Christmas tree, stars, and other common spritz types).
The makeup of these cookies make them less prone to turning to mush or breaking apart and they tend to be on the smaller side, which means you can get more creative with the packaging.
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you want to send chocolate chip cookies, I get you!
Sometimes, this is the best way to send a care package because you want to mail some delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies to someone you love.
I would suggest using a recipe like this Grand Floridian chocolate chip cookie that has a tougher exterior with a soft and chewy inside.
This will go a way to help make sure the cookie doesn’t fall apart in transit because it’s too soft.
Sending a soft chocolate chip cookie recipe like the Nestle Tollhouse recipe can be done, but it’s going to be much harder because there is not enough sturdiness to the cookie.
5. Cowboy Cookies
These cowboy cookies are excellent cookies to ship, as they are super flat, hard on the outside, and stack on top of each other beautifully.
This is a great cookie option to send in the mail if you want to send one with lots of mix-ins, including pecans, chocolate chips, and more.
6. Cookies with Oats
Here’s a secret: if your cookie recipe has oats, it’s more likely to hold up better in the mail.
The oats give the cookie some extra sturdiness, which is what makes these chocolate chunk oatmeal cookie an excellent choice for shipping.
7. Cornish Fairings/Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread cookies, being a hard cookie by nature, are great options to send through the mail which works well for Christmas celebrations!
However, you can also choose other types of hard ginger cookies, like Cornish fairings which are super easy to make circular cookies with a hint of ginger and other spices, though not as ginger-filled as an actual gingerbread cookie.
Many of the ginger types of cookies are made to be sturdier (including gingersnaps), so you can package them up without as much fear of them falling apart.
