Sending a homemade treat across the miles? These tips for how to ship cookies will help ensure your home-baked confections arrive looking and tasting as fresh as when they left your kitchen.
How to Ship Cookies for Gift-Giving
A box of homemade cookies is a thoughtful, personal gift that delights recipients year-round. With a few careful choices and packing steps, you can avoid sending a package of crumbs and increase the chance that your cookies arrive intact, fresh, and attractive.
Below are practical guidelines for choosing cookies that travel well and for packing them to withstand handling and temperature changes during transit.
What Kinds of Cookies are Best for Shipping?
Some cookies are fragile and don’t withstand shipping well—macarons, thin wafers, tuilles, or any cookie that crumbles easily can arrive broken. Avoid cookies with soft, gooey fillings or toppings that will smear or melt in transit.
Cookies I have the most success shipping include:
- sturdy shortbread,
- drop cookies (chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodles),
- biscotti,
- spritz,
- rugelach,
- bar cookies and unfrosted brownies,
- slice-and-bake cookies,
- cutouts decorated with hardened royal icing (avoid buttercream),
- gingerbread,
- sandwich cookies made from sturdy cookies with firmer fillings,
- confections like rum balls or buckeyes.
Avoid chocolate-dipped or heavily drizzled cookies in warm weather or when shipping to hot climates; melted chocolate can make a mess and ruin the appearance. For cutout shapes, choose designs without fragile appendages—simple shapes like hearts or circles hold up better than shapes with thin points or horns. Also, don’t roll cutout dough too thin if you plan to ship the cookies.
How to Pack Cookies for Shipping
1. Choose a Container and Cushion the Base
Use a sturdy container with solid sides—a metal cookie tin or a heavy kraft treat box works well. Start by cushioning the bottom with bubble wrap, crumpled parchment, or crinkle-cut paper shred to create a protective base that absorbs shock.
2. Pack the Cookies in Pairs
For stability and freshness, sandwich cookies back-to-back in pairs and wrap them in plastic wrap. Paired cookies resist impacts better than single, loose cookies. Alternatively, stack stackable cookies (like chocolate chip) in treat bags with a square of parchment between each cookie, up to about six per stack.
Important: Cookies should be completely cooled before wrapping and packaging.
As you arrange cookies in the container, add cushioning—more crumpled parchment, crinkle paper, or even paper towels—between groups to prevent shifting and rubbing that can cause breakage or scuffing.
3. Final Preparations Before Shipping
Finish with another layer of bubble wrap or your chosen cushioning material on top so the cookies are protected from all sides. Make sure the container’s sides are padded as well; packages often shift and flip during transit.
Secure the cookie tin or box by taping it closed even if it’s tied with ribbon. Then place the sealed container inside a larger outer shipping box with additional packing material to fill any empty space. The outer box should fit snugly around the cookie container—fill gaps with packing filler so the inner box cannot move around during handling.
If you prefer a decorative presentation, you can also wrap the inner box in wrapping paper or kraft paper before placing it in the shipping box, but still tape the inner container closed to prevent accidental opening.
Do you have tips for shipping cookies? Tell us in the comments!