Homemade food gifts that will survive the mail?

I'm planning on giving a lot of homemade food gifts for Christmas this year, but many of my relatives live in other parts of the country. What suggestions do you have for things that will stay fresh after a couple of days in the mail, and that will survive being packed up and shipped from New York to Colorado? (for example)
My ideas so far: caramel corn, shortbread, quickbread, some kinds of cookies, preserved lemons (if I pack the glass jar very well), harissa (ditto).

Lexmccall
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5 Comments

rldougherty
rldougherty December 9, 2011
I have sent pretzal/role cookies in the mail. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place round (hard to find) or mini twist pretzals on the parchment paper with a rolo on top. Put in the oven for 10 minutes and when they are out, top them with a pecan, an M&M or cashew. Let them dry and they will ship wonderfully.
 
Chefbaltz
Chefbaltz December 9, 2011
homemade soup mixes, homemade pancake mix, homemade citrus-mint sugar scrubs, homemade chai tea blends. here's some links to recipes: http://morselsandmoments.blogspot.com/p/food-gifts.html
 
Kittythecollegecook
Kittythecollegecook December 8, 2011
I stayed in Boston at a summer program and all they served was spaghetti with ragu sauce for dinner, so my mom overnighted a box of brownies and my friends and I ate it till we were sick. So definitely send them rush. However one of our family members sends us Mexican wedding cakes and some sort of rasberry tart cookie and they never seem to be too damaged. She ships them in metal tins and puts wax paper in between them.
 
sdebrango
sdebrango December 8, 2011
HLA is right, priiority mail is the way to go. I send 2-3 day. The caramels and candy I got from HLA arrived perfectly, they were well packaged and fresh as the day they were made.
 
hardlikearmour
hardlikearmour December 8, 2011
Caramels, chocolate bark, brittle. I received some yummy cookies from sdebrango who lives in NY and they survived the journey to OR completely intact and delicious. They were sent well-packed via priority mail.
 
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