Mailing Cookies to London, England

[kate used to be 50]

I want to send some cookies to my college friend in London. I know I could send chocolate chip, but I want to send my shortbread cookies with cranberries, chocolate chips, cashews, peanuts and white chocolate. As you can tell by the ingredient list, these are large cookies that may not ship well.

Any one have any tips on how to get them to London intact and fresh?

TIA

[Shep not yet 50]

Two words of advice, double the dough part of the recipe and they will not fall apart, and don't eat all of them before they can be boxed up. i.e. keep your husband away from the raw dough and the finished product before they are sealed up.

[Scagnetti]

When I was in the service, it was common to recive food goods packed in real popcorn. Maybe that's where they got the idea for the synthetic stuff.

[Kelli2006]

I seal the cookies in zipbags and then use a layer of bubblewrap and fill the rest of the box with air-popped popcorn when I mail care packages to my daughter in college, or friends serving in the middle-east.

[kate used to be 50]

Well, thought I'd let you know about the cookies that have everything and their trip to London. After baking a batch on Saturday the general opinion was, while they are awesome cookies, they would probably arrive in London as crumbs. Still edible, but not cookies.

So will be making a more travel worthy cookie and just have to wait until I see the college student on this side of the pond to give her the cookie that has everything.

[eriberri]

Those shortbread cookies sound delicious! Would you mind sharing the recipe?

[kate used to be 50]

Sure. Yields about 14 cookies

2 c flour
1/8 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 t vanillia extract
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
3 oz. white chocolate, chopped into chunks
2/3 c dried cherries or cranberries
2/3 c cashew pieces
2/3 c skinless whole roasted peanuts

Set oven at 350 and line baking sheets with parchment.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.

Cream butter at medium speed for 2 mins. Add sugar in two additions, beating for 1 min. after each portion. Blend in vanilla.

On low speed, beat in flour in two additions, beating just until absorbed, scraping sides of bowl often.

With a wooden spoon, blend in both chocolates and the cherries/cranberries, cashews and peanuts.

Place 1/3 cup mounds of dough on baking sheets.

Bake cookies for 14 mins. or until set. The edges will be golden. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for 1 min. Then slip them, still on parchment paper, to cooling racks.

That's the recipe and though there are a lot of ingredients, it is really very simple and doesn't take that much time. Instead of using bittersweet chocolate bars broken into chunks, I use x-large chocolate chips (Giradelli) and I use the whole bag.

These are yummy. Enjoy.

[dixieday2]

I send cookies all the time to my girlfriend who is stationed overseas; they usually get there in a week to 10 days, and so far they have all been fresh and tasty when they arrive. I'm sure your stuff will get to London faster than that. I don't do anything fancy, just pack the cookies in well-sealed, tupperware-type plastic containers (Glad makes cheap semi-disposable containers that are light and easy to pack) and make sure the box is well-packed with bubble wrap, crumpled newspaper or packing peanuts so the containers don't bounce around in transit. Cookies with a lot of oats in them tend to get hard and dry; otherwise, all the usual butter-based cookies have been fine. Good luck!

[kate used to be 50]

No, don't have a food sealer.Do you think any of those seal wraps would work? I remember seeing ads for them.

hmmmm

and yes, springing for the air-mail. I'm more concerned about the cookies getting there in one piece, but I also want them to be enjoyable.

[rainey]

Nope! Not the same thing. If you're in Los Angeles you could come use mine.

[Candy]

Do you have or know anyone with a vacuum food sealer (on my list to buy before the end of the month)? That is going to be your best bet for freshness especially if you are not springing for air-mail instead of surface.

[rainey]

Yup! That was going to be my suggestion too. I've used mine to send quickbread from LA to New Zealand (the report was it arrived in good shape after nearly two weeks in transit), shortbread to Canada (likewise good, he said, after a couple weeks) and all manner of cookies including the most fragile to my son in college a couple times a month.

Not only does vacuum packing keep them fresher and intact, I really believe it smooths out international voyages because there's no scent to create closer scrutiny to slow it down further.