Heat and Royal Icing

To try that i put some baked and decorated cookies in my neighbors hot car for 24 hours.  It was in the 90’s and most of the day in the sun.  The cookies were in a box. The cookies not bagged got very hard.  The other half was individually bagged and when I took them out of the box there was a lot of steam in the bag.  If I took them out right away they were too soft and prone to falling apart.  If I let them sit until they cooled and they were okay.  Hope that helps.

I have this problem at the farmer's market stall. I had exactly the same issues; steam in the bag, cookies rock hard and dried out. I personally find that after heat exposure they just don't taste the same. But I never bake plain sugar cookies, I have a lot of different flavor mixes and extra ingredients, etc. So that might affect it. This is a high-humidity area, too. I got a cooler that cools down 20 degrees from the ambient temperature. It can plug into the car outlet. I imagine any protection from the heat would help - no reason a cold pack can't do the trick, especially for a short time. Good luck.

Thanks for the responses and sharing your experiences! That sounds like quite the experience Econlady I was thinking maybe I should do some testing of my own, but didn't have time for this order! Good to know someone already did it! And Terry, yes you're right...no harm in adding a cold pack just to be safe...think I'll just go that route and not even have to worry about how they're doing in the car once they leave my hands

Let us know how it turns out

I will! Thanks again!

Don't do it without cooling of some kind! The cookies will steam and get very soft, and the icing can bleed. I had cookies recently shipped to me, just heat-sealed and boxed. They sat on my porch (between 90F and 100F) no more than an hour or two, and they were a mess - the icing had bled in areas and they nearly disintegrated when I picked them up. They were fine when cooled down (texture-wise), but nothing can fix the icing once it's messed up.

Julia M. Usher posted:

Don't do it without cooling of some kind! The cookies will steam and get very soft, and the icing can bleed. I had cookies recently shipped to me, just heat-sealed and boxed. They sat on my porch (between 90F and 100F) no more than an hour or two, and they were a mess - the icing had bled in areas and they nearly disintegrated when I picked them up. They were fine when cooled down (texture-wise), but nothing can fix the icing once it's messed up.

Oh yikes, what a mess! I ended up sending mine in a bag with a cold pack and they arrived safely even after being in the car for several hours before getting to their destination Glad I asked and didn't attempt to send without anything. 

Royal Icing is "food." Treat it with respectful food-handling techniques. Sometimes people think because it is hard, it should last like cement forgetting that the cookie itself looses crispness when set out in humid environments (with or without icing), the character of icing changes, and age takes its tole. If you wouldn't set out chocolate in a non-air conditioned summer-time, don't expect your cookies of any type being peak freshness for the same reason. Note that I live in a high-humidity area which can "sog" any baked product quite quickly when the conditions are right.

Help! I attended a farmers market today and some of my cookies started sweating/condensating. I'm home now and there is minimal condensation on the cookies that didn't sell. Should I leave them be, or open all of the remaining cookies up and repackage them tomorrow? I'm worried about mold growing, should I be? Thanks for any advice!!!

Miss Cookie Co posted:

Help! I attended a farmers market today and some of my cookies started sweating/condensating. I'm home now and there is minimal condensation on the cookies that didn't sell. Should I leave them be, or open all of the remaining cookies up and repackage them tomorrow? I'm worried about mold growing, should I be? Thanks for any advice!!!

Yeah, I'd open them up and take them out of any wet packaging.