Food & Cooking Recipes Dessert & Treats Recipes Cookie Recipes The Very Best Cookie Recipes for Shipping By Jennifer Anderson Jennifer Anderson Jennifer is a freelance writer for MarthaStewart.com. Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 21, 2019 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Alpha Smoot There's no better way to send some love than with a package of homemade cookies. Follow our tips and tricks for making sure those cookies are just as tempting and tasty when they get to their destination as they were on the day you baked them. When it comes to mailing, not all cookies are created equal. Cookies with uniform shapes and sizes are the best for packing—avoid those with odd angles and irregular shapes. (Sorry, reindeer sugar cookies! Your antlers just aren't going to survive the journey.) Circles, like the Vanilla-Bean Sugar Cookies shown here, as well as squares, triangles, bars; anything that can be stacked and packed snugly together is a good choice. Next, think about the texture of the cookies you want to gift, and eliminate from your list anything that is especially crumbly, delicate, or sticky. The best kinds of cookies for mailing are those that are firm and crunchy—like shortbread, biscotti, and gingerbread—and those that are somewhat soft and chewy, like snickerdoodles, molasses cookies, brownies, and other bar cookies. After your cookies are all baked and decorated, be sure to give them time to cool completely and check that the icing (if any) has dried. Fresh-from-the-oven cookies might be a real treat in the moment, but they will fuse into one gooey, crumbly mass if you pack them up while they're still warm. The best cookie shipping vessel is an airtight food storage container or tin. Fit the cookies into the container snugly, with as little space in between them as possible. If the cookies are at all soft, put a sheet of parchment paper between each layer so they don't stick together. If you're mailing more than one kind of cookie, pack any crunchy cookies separately from the soft ones so they all maintain the right texture. Finally, pack your container of cookies into a larger box with padding on all sides (crumpled paper, foam peanuts, or air-popped popcorn) to give your treats a smooth ride all the way to your lucky friends and family. Get the Recipe 01 of 12 Peppermint-Candy Sugar Cookies Sang An It's never been so easy to decorate sugar cookies: simply roll soft-and-chewy sugar cookie dough in crushed peppermint candies for instant holiday vibes. View Recipe 02 of 12 Gingerbread-Cookie Letters to Santa Louise Hagger Crisp, spicy gingerbread rectangles magically transform into sweet letters to Santa with just a little bit of royal icing. View Recipe 03 of 12 Spiced Fruitcake Bars Johnny Miller These divinely decadent morsels, packed with dried sour cherries, apricots, cranberries, and currants; spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and doused with Cognac will make you forget every fruitcake joke you've heard. View Recipe 04 of 12 Coconut-Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies Bryan Gardner Chewy coconut cookies with a swirl of fudgy filling will become an instant holiday classic in your family. View Recipe 05 of 12 Lemon Spice Butter Cookies David Meredith Slice-and-bake butter cookies are flavored with nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon, and rolled in sparkly sanding sugar for the perfect festive finish. View Recipe 06 of 12 Cranberry Coins Johnny Miller Simple butter cookies take on a holiday dimension with tart, chewy dried cranberries in the mix. View Recipe 07 of 12 Tropical Fruit Biscotti Alpha Smoot Biscotti very well may be the perfect holiday cookie: They're easy to make, keep for months, and are endlessly customizable with the fruits, nuts, chocolates you love best. These biscotti are studded with dried papaya, crystallized ginger, and pistachios and just might be our most colorful biscotti recipe yet. Don't forget the secret to biscotti success: Always use a serrated bread knife for slicing! View Recipe 08 of 12 Chewy Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies Joseph De Leo Irresistibly chewy molasses spice cookies get the holiday glow-up from semisweet chocolate chunks. View Recipe 09 of 12 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles linda xaio Just like Grandma used to make… but better, thanks to the addition of pumpkin purée and extra holiday spices. View Recipe 10 of 12 Peppermint Bark Cookies Lennart Weibull You won't believe how easy it is to dress up these chocolate-chunk cookies with some holiday magic: just melt old-fashioned starlight peppermints in the oven and attach those fanciful swirls with a bit of melted white chocolate. View Recipe 11 of 12 Mocha Shortbread Cocoa, espresso, and crunchy cacao nibs bring the sophistication to sweet, buttery shortbread. View Recipe 12 of 12 Peanut-Butter Sandwich Cookies Lennart Weibull These are no ordinary peanut butter cookies! Oats add a toasty flavor and chewy texture, and the sweet peanut butter filling doubles your peanutty pleasure. View Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit