Parents offer tips for mailing home-baked goodies – Daily News

Published September 7, 2011

Email, text messages and Facebook updates might be making letters from home all but obsolete to the current generation of college students, soldiers and other young people leaving the nest, but these electronic innovations havent replaced care packages of cookies, brownies and other reminders of home.

These packages still are eagerly anticipated and much appreciated, especially when theyre packed with an eye toward delivering their goods still fresh and intact.

I know what its like to close your eyes, stick your face in the box and smell that amazing scent of home, military mother Marye Audet said. For a moment, you are there.

During her son Chris recent tour of duty in Iraq, she sent him some of the same baked goods that brought a smile to her face

during her own military service in the 1970s.

Parents of West Point cadets and graduates are among the most experienced at loading up care packages, since they start sending them during the college years and continue through active duty in the U.S. Army.

They suggest smaller, more frequent packages from home are preferable to an occasional mega-box because storage space is at a premium both for college students and members of the armed forces.

Audet also steers care package preparers toward chewy cookies as opposed to crispy ones because they stay fresh longer and are less likely to crumble.

Cookies with eggs in the recipe are far better travelers than cookies without eggs, she said.

Peanut butter cookies are particularly good travelers, especially when stacked and tightly wrapped.

College students are perennially fond of brownies. The best way to mail brownies and other bar cookies is to remove them, uncut, from the pan and wrap the entire slab. Enclosing a plastic knife for cutting them is a nice touch, too, along with tucking in a zip bag for storing any leftovers.

The slab format works for most drop-cookie recipes as well. A batch of chocolate chip cookie dough can be baked in a jelly roll pan, making thicker squares that will stay moist much longer.

The West Point parents warn that anything with frosting on top is likely to arrive as a soggy, unrecognizable mess. For students and soldiers with a sweet tooth, the parents suggest sending a tub of ready-made frosting that can be spread on brownies or cake later.

Vacuum sealers help to extend freshness. And because they remove the air space around the baked goods, they also prevent breakage. One method not recommended for baked goods is baking them in canning jars, despite recipes that have circulated on the Internet in recent years.

Although home cooks have reported great success with cakes and muffin mixes made in canning jars and sealed while hot, food scientists point out that the environment in the sealed jar is conducive to harmful bacteria, including the bacteria that causes botulism.

Food safety specialists at Penn State, the University of Georgia and other research institutions advise against baking in canning jars because of the risk of toxic bacteria when they are stored at room temperature or above, as they are when mailed.

Audet points out the most important thing to include in the care package are photos and encouraging notes because those are the things that keep you going when the cookies are long gone.

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Oreo Brownies

2 sticks butter

1/2 pound semisweet chocolate chips

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

3 eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee granules

1 tablespoons vanilla

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups chopped Oreo cookies, 25 cookies

Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Butter and flour a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan.

In a heatproof medium bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, heat butter, chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate until it is melted and smooth. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs, coffee, vanilla and sugar. Blend the chocolate mixture into egg mixture. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture.

In a small bowl, stir the Oreos and the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. Add the Oreo mixture to the chocolate mixture.

Pour the batter into baking pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 3 inches from center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Allow the brownies to cool. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, until cold; cut into squares.

SOURCE: How Easy Is That?, by Ina Garten

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Creative Pan Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 1/4 cups quick oats, uncooked

1 cup chopped dried apple slices, OR raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a small mixer bowl.

Beat the sugar and shortening in a large mixer bowl until creamy.

Beat in the eggs. Gradually add the flour mixture and water.

Stir in morsels, oats and apples.

Spread the batter into an ungreased 15-inch-by-10-inch jelly roll pan.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

MAKES: 48 bars

SOURCE: Nestles Chocolate

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Butterscotch Scotchies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel, (1 medium orange)

2 tablespoons water

3 cups quick OR old-fashioned oats, uncooked

1 2/3 cups (11-ounce package) butterscotch flavored morsels

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 15-inch-by-10-inch jelly roll pan.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a small mixer bowl.

Beat shortening, sugar, eggs and orange peel in a large mixer bowl until it is creamy.

Gradually beat in the flour mixture and water. Stir in oats and morsels.

Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

MAKES: 48 bars.

SOURCE: Nestles Chocolate

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The Best Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe Ever

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together the dry ingredients.

In a mixer, cream the butter, shortening and peanut butter until smooth.

Add sugars and continue beating until well blended.

Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add the flour mixture and blend well. You might need to do this by hand.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls.

Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a silicone mat 2 inches apart.

Flatten the cookies with a fork dipped in flour and flatten the other way to create cross hatching.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes for chewy, 10 to 12 minutes for crispy/chewy and 12 to 14 minutes for crispy. Watch carefully.

Cool completely.

MAKES: 6 dozen

SOURCE: Mary Audet

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