If you’ve taken the time to whip up a batch of chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or tamarind and lime thumbprint cookies, you want to ensure they stay fresh until every tasty morsel is devoured (no wasting delicious baked goods!). But if your cookie jar is on the antique side and doesn’t have an airtight seal, preserving those homemade treats can be a challenge.
We get it — maybe your cookie container is an heirloom from your grandmother’s house, or it’s just such a cute bit of crockery. Sentimental value is real, and you don’t have to throw it out or use something else. There’s a way to keep your cookies fresh inside an old-school jar. For guidance on how to do it, Food Republic reached out to world-renowned pâtissier Adriano Zumbo.
“Store cookies … with a slice of bread,” Zumbo recommends. You can place the treats in a sealed vessel that fits inside the jar, like a hard plastic cracker keeper — we like this one by Stay Fresh, though a plastic zip-close bag will also do the trick. With your cookies properly stacked, the container will fit in a cookie jar with no problem, and the addition of the bread helps keep them from hardening or growing stale. Fresh white bread is best, as it has more moisture, which the treats will absorb. White bread also won’t impart unwanted flavor to your cookies the way whole wheat or flavored bread might.
Other tips for preserving cookie freshness
Another way to keep cookies soft and fresh is to place apple slices in the container with them. There is a risk that the apples’ flavor may intermingle with that of the cookies, but the fruit will actually impart its moisture more slowly than a slice of bread, helping the cookies stay soft and fresh for longer. When deciding which hack to use, you may need to weigh potential flavor transfer against longevity. Just remember to keep an eye on both bread and apples in your cookie container. When the bread starts to harden or the apple begins to look mushy, swap in fresh slices.
Another thing to consider is the type of cookies best suited for a jar without a seal. “Cookies with lower moisture content, like shortbread, stay fresh longer than soft cookies,” Adriano Zumbo explains. Letting in some outside air is actually beneficial for crispy cookies, as it helps prevent them from softening due to moisture. These treats are therefore better candidates for a non-sealing jar, while soft cookies will fare better in an airtight container.
