We all have friends and family who live far away, and although today's world is one of instant gratification and technology-assisted "hello's", it's always fun and much more personal to get mail!
One of an old favorite, the chocolate chip cookie, is wonderful to receive via mail if you're at school, going through training, or just hit a rough patch in your week and need a pick-me-up. Delicious for the send-ee, easy to make for the sender. Probably the most difficult part of sending cookies, though, is the packaging!
That is, until my mom let me in on a little secret: popcorn! It's the perfect insulation for your delicate baked goods, and it's just as yummy as the sweets you send along! And the fact that it's more environmentally-friendly than styrofoam doesn't hurt. Here's the process I use:
To start, bake your cookies. If you really want to make your pen pal smile, melt some chocolate for 'glue' and attach a candy face to the top.
Pop your popcorn. It will definitely take more popcorn than you think to fill the bag! I thought 1 batch would be fine and ended up making 3, so better to err on the side of leftovers, right?
Use a medium to large plastic bag to line the inside of your box. Another nice touch you can do to make your package special and unique is to decorate the inside with stickers, glitter, tissue paper, and anything else you can think of. Definitely a smile-bringer.
Once your cookies are baked and cooled, package them in small batches and put them in plastic zip bags. Fill the large plastic bag (which, remember, is inside the box now) with a shallow layer of popcorn first. Next, add a bag of cookies, and then more popcorn. Continue this layering process until you have the cookies insulated comfortably on all sides with popcorn (including on top!).
Close up the bag. You can even use pipe cleaners for a little more fun.
Close it up and ship it off! Your pen pal now has a package with completely edible contents and you don't have to worry about broken cookies!
Until next time, cheers!
