TSA shares favorite holiday cookie recipes because yes, you can bring cookies through a security checkpoint

Local Press Release

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Holiday cookie baking season is here, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) knows that passengers often want to bring holiday cookies with them on flights. Whether you bring them on board a plane to nibble on or to bring them as a gift, the good news is you can indeed bring cookies and other baked goods through a checkpoint in your carry-on bag!

But before you agree to take a tin of your favorite homemade cookies or other baked goods to your family or friend's house, it's important to think how you're planning to transport them if you are flying over the holidays. You may carry most foods through a TSA checkpoint, but you need to transport some items in checked baggage.

Here's some food for thought. If it's a solid item, such as cookies, a cake, pie, brownies or other baked goods, then it can go through a checkpoint. Yes, that even includes fruitcake! However, if you can spill it, spread it, spray it, pump it or pour it, and it's larger than 3.4 ounces, then it should go in a checked bag. So, you need to pack items such as preserves, jams, jellies, eggnog and maple syrup in a checked bag.

TSA officers like to bake cookies just as much as anyone else, and several of our frontline screeners offered to share their favorite homemade cookie recipes with travelers.

Amy Hatfield, an Assistant Federal Security Director at Pittsburgh International Airport, said when her Navy sons were deployed or stationed far from home, she shipped them a box of goodies monthly with their favorite snacks-including cookies. Her tip for transporting cookies in either a carry-on or checked bag is to use a Pringle's tube. Her advice: "Stack your cookies and wrap the stack with plastic wrap. Then slide the stack of cookies into an empty Pringles can."

Of course, using a gift bag, cookie tin or gift box perhaps in a sealable plastic bag with a little extra tissue paper for padding also works well when carrying goodies on board a flight.

Here are some recipes that are favorites of TSA officers that they like to bake during the holidays.

White Chocolate Chip Ube Cookies

Recipe shared by TSA Officer Ciaran Persch from Pennsylvania's Harrisburg International Airport (MDT).

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
15 oz ube jam (Also called ube halaya, which you can find at most Asian grocery stores)
1 large egg at room temperature
1 large egg yolk at room temperature
2 tbsp ube extract
1 cup white chocolate chips

Recipe

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat unsalted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium-high speed until well-blended. Add ube jam, extract to the mixture and continue beating until incorporated. Add eggs and beat until combined. Add flour mixture to ube mixture in thirds and beat until no more streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bottom of the bowl as you go. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the batter for at least three hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop roughly two tablespoons of the dough and roll into balls. Place the balls onto the cookie sheet with about two inches of space around each ball. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes or until the cookies are set. Allow to cool completely.

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Recipe shared by TSA Officer Susan Smoot from West Virginia's Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW).

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
8 ounces cream cheese softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 box orange cake mix
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
orange food coloring (optional)

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, orange extract, cream cheese and egg with a mixer until smooth. Add the cake mix and mix well. (Add orange food coloring if desired until the cookie dough reaches your desired orange color.) Stir the white chocolate chips into the cookie dough.

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. (Do not skip this step.)

Form the dough into 24 balls. Roll each in powdered sugar and place on the lined cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Pete's Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe shared by TSA Officer Kelli Herreid from West Virginia's Greenbrier Valley Airport (LWB).

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips; set aside. Combine butter, shortening, sugars and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add egg and mix until well incorporated. Add dry ingredients and mix. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake the dough in rounded tablespoons on an ungreased baking sheet for 9 to 11 minutes or until the edges are brown.

Banana Spice Cookies

Recipe shared by TSA Officer Roslyn Sears from Baltimore Washington International/Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Ingredients

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Recipe

Mix shortening, butter, eggs, sugar and bananas. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and chill for one hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a cookie sheet. Place hand-rolled balls of dough about one rounded teaspoon each onto cookie sheet at a distance of two inches apart. Bake for eight to 10 minutes. Makes three to four dozen depending on the size of the hand-rolled balls of dough.

Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes one dozen large cookies)

Recipe shared by TSA Officer Tanya Smeltz from Virginia's Lynchburg Regional Airport.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp k\Kosher salt
1tbsp cornstarch
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips, plus more to press into the top of the dough after baking

Recipe

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, salt and cornstarch and mix for 1 minute. Turn the mixer to low and mix in the flour until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Portion out a rounded 1/3 cup of cookie dough and roll into a ball. Break the cookie dough ball in half, turn the dough so the jagged broken edge is facing up and then press back together to create a craggy top. Place dough onto the prepared baking sheet 3 inches apart. Officer Smeltz recommends baking just five cookies at a time since they are large.

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes until the edges and tops are slightly golden. Press additional chocolate chips on top of the baked cookies. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. .