Tuesday, December 14, 2004 3:16 PM
ryanseals
Tips for sending baked goods
OK OK ... I know this is Ryan's "hooah" Army blog, but I had to post some tips on sending cookies and baked goods for all the ladies to read. (Maybe that's sexist. This is for all you bakers out there, male and female!)
I gleaned my tips from Michelle Smith's blog. Thank you! I just tested them out by sending my first batch of cookies to Ryan and his guys. I didn't make them, my friend did, but hey -- they're good. We'll see if they get there fresh!
So here are some tips:
1. Think about what you're sending. Especially for summer treats, limit chocolate to small amounts because it will MELT. I don't think temperatures are too high in Iraq at the moment (but I could be wrong, as I'm not there). Bar cookies are easier to pack, and recipes with white sugar and vegetable shortening are best to avoid spoiling, in general.
2. The tricky part -- packaging. What I did was: pack cookies in aluminum foil in short stacks; pack the stacks in Gladware containers; place a slice of bread in the Gladware container on top of cookies and seal; and finally, seal the Gladware containers in Ziploc bags. Then, pack the cookies in a box with lots of cushioning and send away.
Why did I put bread in the containers? Well, some people have said that the bread keeps the cookies soft because the sugar in the cookies has a higher affinity for water and sucks the moisture out of the bread. So, in the best case scenario, the soldier will get lots of moist, fresh cookies and a few stale pieces of bread. They can feed it to camel spiders, so no worries. :-) Make sure, though, that the bread isn't directly sitting on top of cookies -- make sure you wrap the cookies in foil so none gets really soggy. I'll let everyone know how the bread method works.
If anyone else has tips, please leave them. They'd be appreciated.
Otherwise, check out tips on the Nestle Web site.
Lastly, I'll pass on more of Michelle's good advice -- pack enough to share!
-Christy
UPDATE: Please see “Oh, the baking“ in the image galleries to find out just how well the first round of baking went. (Don't worry. Disgusting cookies pictured did not go to Iraq.)