Cookie Care Package Tutorial/Inspiration

You know I’m all about giving things to people. When I look through my blog posts {by the way, happy first birthday to The Postman’s Knock — we’re a little over a year old!}, I realize that 95% of my tutorials were created with the intent of gifting a unique finished product to someone.

Today’s post follows suit {would you expect anything less?}. I’ve been wanting to send a cookie care package to a friend in Seattle, and truth be told I procrastinated a little bit until I finally wrote it in my to-do list. Finally, I created a game plan … because truth be told I have never sent cookies to anyone before. Here’s how it went down:

At 10:00 last night, I mixed together the dough for these salted caramel chocolate chip cookies from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I’ve tried the recipe before and know the cookies to be out-of-this-world thanks to ample amounts of sugar, butter, chocolate, and salt.

I chilled the dough overnight as chilling is required by the recipe. The next morning, I woke up and constructed the cookies.

{About to go in the oven!}

Once the cookies had baked, I put them in the refrigerator so the chocolate chips could fully solidify. I didn’t want them to get all smudgy in their little sacks. That ruins the presentation! Once they had chilled for an hour or so {though you could probably get away with 15 minutes}, I made a cookie sending construction station. Observe:

I had:

• Parchment paper, for sandwiching between the bottoms of the cookies {I’ll explain this in more detail in the next image}
• A plastic sandwich bag … because we are one of the few households in America that for some reason doesn’t keep plastic wrap around. If you have plastic wrap, I would recommend using that instead.
• Two cookies per bag, to put back-to-back
• Tape, to fold the plastic sandwich bag over so as to secure the cookies. I’d like to point your attention to the awesome tape dispenser, which my boyfriend made as a project his sophomore year at KU. How cool is that?!

To construct the individual cookie bags, I sandwiched the parchment paper between the bottoms of two cookies back-to-back. I did this just in case the cookies melt somewhat in transit; I didn’t want them to be stuck to each other.

Next, I sealed the cookies in the bag and pushed out as much excess air as I could.

Then I taped over the side of the bag to prevent the cookies sliding around.

{Et voilá:}

It took a lot of willpower not to tear into these:

Next, I moved on to the presentation. I recently purchased 100 paper lunch sacks at King Soopers {/Kroger/Dillon’s/Baker’s Market} — they were only $2.50. I created calligraphy using an oblique calligraphy pen, but you could just as easily stamp on them, paint on them, write on them with a regular pencil, or do nothing.

Next, I put two packages of cookies {four cookies total} in the bags. I folded over the top of the sack about two inches…

… and next I used a hole punch to create two holes.

I slipped some jute twine through these holes:

And put the twine through a cute handmade label:

Then I tied the jute twine in the back.

{And of course I couldn’t forget the milk! This friend comes from a family of notorious cookie-and-milk fanatics.}

When I was finished, I ended up with four pretty packages of cookies, certain to surprise my friend.

I think the most intimidating thing about care packages like this is figuring out the shipping. Here are some tips to make it easier for you! Unfortunately, and I’m sorry about this, these tips only apply for readers in the US. If you are from outside the US and have shipping tips, please let us know in the comments!

First of all, if you’re shipping cookies, USPS Medium Flat Rate is your best bet. You can pick up these boxes at the post office for free, or order them to be delivered to your doorstep for free.

I say that medium flat rate is a good choice because chances are your cookies will weigh a considerable amount {well, my large sugary gems did, at least} and they’ll take up quite a bit of space. In this case, it would have cost me $13.50 to ship in a regular box, but because I used the flat rate box, the cost became $11.30.

Be sure you put in plenty of packing peanuts so your cookies don’t break!

{Check out the envelope!}

Once you seal the box, you need to deal with the label situation. I strongly recommend you print your shipping label off at home if you have a printer. Not only will you save money on the label {USPS offers a discount if you print labels off at home}, but you can also schedule a pickup and the mailman will pick up the box for you at your doorstep or by the mailbox. I scheduled a pickup the night before I made the cookies, with the knowledge that my mailman generally gets here around 2:00 or 2:30.

Of course, if you don’t have a printer, or if you’d rather drop your package off at the post office, or if you want to ship the cookies soon after you bake them and you aren’t sure when your mailman will come by — just go to USPS and send your care package on its way!

I really, really love sending care packages and like having an excuse to send someone a surprise in the mail. Every semester at finals I sent a care package to my sister-in-law at KU to make studying a little easier; and if I hear a friend is going through a breakup OR congratulations are in order, I slip a little something in the mail. The feeling you get giving someone something is better than the feeling you get receiving something! So I encourage you … bake some cookies, make some tea sachets, create some handmade envelopes … and send them to someone as a surprise. The feeling you’ll get knowing they received such a wonderful treat in the mail is absolutely priceless.

Until next time, have a wonderful Friday!