Recipes for homemade snacks that ship well?

December 3, 2021 4:59 AM

I'd like to make a variety of homemade snacks, and mail them to friends for the holidays. Specifications within!

Requirements:

• Will keep for at least a week at room temperature (so it will survive in the mail)
• Lends itself to being made in large-ish batches
• A little fancier than, say, Chex Mix
• Savory or sweet-and-savory (I'm not really looking for purely sweet items such as cookies, cake, or candy)

Nice-to-haves:

• Wholesome ingredients (nuts, fruit, whole grains, etc.)
• Vegan (or easily adaptable to be vegan) – this is pretty low priority

I'm currently thinking of things like: spiced nuts, granola / muesli / fancy trail mix, maybe some sort of homemade crackers with herbs/cheese/seeds (maybe made with chickpea flour?), homemade pickles (if they can be made in a shelf-stable way without canning), etc. The sort of thing you might receive in one of those nice gift baskets with a variety of upper-middle-shelf snacks. But, you know, homemade.

I'm open to ideas that bend these rules a bit. Thanks for any suggestions!

posted by escape from the potato planet to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

This is always a hit, and should travel through the mail with no problem.

Chili-Lime Roasted Chickpeas
Makes 2 cups

2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained and patted dry
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 Tablespoon lime juice
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 400°. Line a 15x10x1-in. baking sheet with foil. Spread chickpeas in a single layer over foil, removing any loose skins. Bake until very crunchy, 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk remaining ingredients. Remove chickpeas from oven; let cool 5 minutes. Drizzle with oil mixture; shake pan to coat. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

You can do a rosemary-sea salt variation: Instead of the lime and spices, toss the chickpeas with 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, 1 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary and 1/2 tsp. sea salt.
posted by Dolley at 5:56 AM on December 3, 2021 [6 favorites]

These bar nuts from Smitten Kitchen are so good!
posted by TrarNoir at 6:17 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Not exactly what you asked for, but ... when I was younger and my mom sent me cookies, she would fill up the rest of the box with popcorn. So we had a twofer: packing material = treat.
posted by NotLost at 6:36 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Biscotti
posted by lucy.jakobs at 7:13 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I really like this Pretzel & Nut Mix: The Best Cocktail Snack Ever from David Lebovitz.
posted by blacktshirtandjeans at 8:38 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Scotcharoos are like Rice Krispie treats, but 100 times better

Divinity fudge is easy but aggressively sweet. Regular chocolate fudge will also ship well-- the standard version is good but the easy version (bag of chocolate chips + can of sweetened condensed milk, melt, stir, pour, harden, cut, package) is very easy and tastes like effort.

If you can, lemon curd is always a hit. Also seconding biscotti which are easy. If you want my fruitcake recipe memail me, but a lot of people won't even try it (I promise it's good.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:15 AM on December 3, 2021

Smoked paprika almonds? Toast raw almonds in a 400 degree oven til fragrant (keep a close eye on them, they go from fragrant to burned in a hurry), then toss with olive oil, good-quality smoked paprika, and salt to taste. I usually mix the oil, paprika and salt together while the nuts toast just to make it easier to distribute everything evenly.
posted by Janta at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Chef John’s gingerbread biscotti - technically not savoury but oh so lovely and gingery and very seasonal.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:26 PM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Hot sauces?
posted by redlines at 3:56 PM on December 3, 2021

Last year I made and mailed a lot of treats, I made this vegan cashew brittle and it was AMAZING.

I also got some ideas from this list of savory gift ideas; I made some toum for some garlic-loving friends (it was very popular) but did not try mailing it.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 6:33 PM on December 3, 2021