Homemade versions of Girl Scout cookies
When it's not Girl Scout Cookie time, how can you get your fix?
Photo: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar/Flickr - Tagalongs – Baking Bites has a recipe for these peanut butter patty Girl Scout cookies.
- Thin Mints – Serious Eats has a version of my family’s favorite that I’m going to have to try.
- Samoas – Christine’s Cuisine makes a duplicate of the chocolatey, caramely, coconutty cookies in bar form.
- Do-Si-Dos - Baking Bites has a recipe for a larger version of these peanut butter sandwich cookies.
- Shortbread Cookies – CD Kitchen’s recipe makes 60 of these copy-cat cookies — more than you’d get in the seemingly ever shrinking box.
- Thanks-a-lot – Delish has a recipe for two-tone cookies that are like the chocolate and vanilla Girl Scout cookies.
- The Original Cookies – Lemondrop.com has a recipe for the original Girl Scout cookies. The ones the Scouts used to bake and sell for a quarter a dozen before they went with commercially baked.
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Comments
I realize they are for fundraising but we do not eat HFCS!!! ever!!! sorry.....even if they are high in fat and sugar.. I would still buy them but not with HFCS!!!!
Robin, I made the Serious Eats' Thin Mints last year and they were AMAZING! Tasted just like the real thing! You DEFINITELY need to try it!
Here's how my attempt went:
http://betweenyourearsblog.com/2011/02/25/that-time-of-year/
I want to make my own girl scout cookies now... Yay, now I can get fat out of cookie season
Wooo! I miss girl scout cookies immensely - I'd buy them from the source if we had girl scouts here in europe but, well, we don't, and getting them shipped is cost-prohibitive. I've been -dying- for thin mints though!
While many gourmet cookie companies such as Cheryl's removed trans fats from their recipes many years ago after coming to understand their ill effects on health, the Girl Scout organization has not done so. They have instead opted to only reduce trans fats (aka hydrogenated oils) in their recipes to a low enough amount that they fall below the "legal" criteria for being listed in the fats shown within the nutrition facts label. You would think that an organization serving children and.... More
If not for cookie sales, lots of girls would have no safe haven from the poverty and hell of their daily lives. So please remember Girl Scouts Cookies can be refrigerated or frozen to extend their shelf life, and don't waste your time making pale imitations. This comment typed while munching on the last box of my 2010 Samoas.
The cookies themselves don't do anything for us. We only get 50 cents out of a $4 box, and we can't sell door-to-door anymore, so I'm all out of luck.
That said, I do get the oppurtunity to get away from it all with the meetings, fundraisers, and trips; even if cookies don't help.
i love girl scout cookies!
I love how so many people worship the GS like it's the greatest thing to happen to little girls since child labor laws. I mean yeah, they teach kids how to keep track of inventory, orders, and payments (secretary work); home economics; camping skills (in cabins or buildings, with hot meals every night, never building fires themselves for safety reasons); and many other things that girls should learn.
Girl Scouts also teaches the kiddies how to alienate anyone who's not an upper-middle.... More
interesting....
Sadly, there are troop leaders who have no business being troop leaders, just as there are teachers who have no business being teachers and there are parents who have no business being parents. It sickens me every time I hear about a bad troop leader...usually from a parent who decided s/he could do better and took over the troop or became co-leader. :) I'm disgusted that adults would sit by and allow any bullying to happen anywhere, but especially at a GS meeting it's unacceptable. I can tell.... More
I was a girl scout once and was picked on because i was the only skinny kid. all the other girls were little fatties and they picked on me and wouldn't let me use the trampoline because i wouldn't jump as high. so no one did anything to make me feel accepted and apart of a team. i'm still willing to give it a try for my daughter, but if she has one little complaint about bullying or cliques. i will blame the girl scouts... because all these years i thought it was just me. i know how you.... More
I went through 6 years of girl guiding and more than anything it allowed me feel like I was connected to my community in a way I can assure you most children sitting at home playing video games cant even imagine. It is so sad that you are putting down an organization that has inspired so many. I feel sorry for you.
That isn't a problem with girl scouts, that was a problem with the leaders. Too bad you had an awful experience and weren't allowed to benefit from a great organization.
you are actually very wrong. I'm sorry if you were alienated or your child but I was a gs for 10 years and for one we did intact camp in tents and build fires. We even had to collect our firewood (but only from nature already on the ground). For another we spent most of our time volunteering. Whether it was at shelters or failing city schools to just give people meals or hope.
I am now 26 and I can thank the girl scouts for a one up to get my current job over as well as the.... More
Calm down, sweetheart. This is a blog about homemade cookies, not an invitation to rant and rave about your childhood dilemmas. I was also a GS, and I was also socially awkward, but honestly, I think I was the cause of all my problems, not the GS. And boy, did I work/freeze my butt off selling cookies in front of Krogers. Don't get too riled up. The GS is full of girls in its very nature, and girls just aren't nice sometimes.
chef chloe coscarelli recently posted a recipe for vegan thin mints
http://www.chefchloe.com/blog/2-blog/45-thin-mints-girl-scout-cookies.html
i haven't tried it yet because i don't have peppermint extract or chocolate at the moment, but everything i've made of hers is delicious. (her chocolate cake, shortbread cookies, and berry cobbler are especially good.) so i'll be trying this.... More
DEFINITELY making the samoas - they're my all-time fave
Troop only keeps ~$0.50 per box for their budget. Agree with all who say bake these versions and donate $3.00 directly to troop to use toward their plans for adventure. All will come out ahead - except the bureaucrats at council level, the trucking company that delivers, and the cookie baker.
While it is true only 50 cents goes to the troop, this is a fund raiser that most of the money does go to the girls. The main purpose of the cookie sale is to grow great camps. The biggest portion of the $3.50 per box goes to the camps. Girls who sell a large number of cookies go to camp free!!! The bureaucrats at council level are underpaid or not paid.
I do plan to try these recipes because I love to bake. I have ordered a case of cookies and will pay for another case to be sent to.... More
I think the best option would be to forget about the cookies and just give a donation. Use these recipes, make your own cookies, and still help out the GS's in an even better way by giving them some money that will go directly to them!
When I was a scout about 13 years ago, it was the worse thing about GS's, selling cookies. First, if you live in suburbia like me there about about 1000 other girls trying to do the same thing as you, second when there are so many other girls you end up.... More
think you need to chill out a little, rather than write an essay to someone offering cookie recipes. i don't think she's out to get the girl scouts here
In case you've never had one, next time you go to a TGI Friday's or another bar, try a Thin Mint Girl Scot Cookie Shot, Taste AMAZING (as do the cookies) but it's a fun little drink to tickle your tongue! YUMMM. There are also recipes online, but it's a lot of different alcohols that i never use otherwise, so it's a treat for nights out.
Those of you who have already pointed out that Girl Scout cookies are bad for you and asking why they don't try selling something else: because people f*cking LOVE Girl Scout cookies and refuse to believe the Girl Scouts do anything else. The councils have tried to sell other things. When I was still involved, my troop tried to sell calendars one year. It didn't work. You know why? Nobody buys a CALENDAR from the GIRL SCOUTS. Girl Scouts sell cookies, gorrammit. 90% of the people who passed our.... More
I made the Samoas a while back and blogged about them. They were definitely good but a bit of a pain to make. It definitely wouldn't put GS out of business ;) it's fun having the recipe, but I still buy them every year! I just wish they sold them more than once throughout the year.
I understand that you think they should be healthier, but believe me its harder than you think to change those cookies. Council, at least near me, is very hard to get through to. But you have to realize the healthier the cookies get, the more expensive they will be. And with the cookies being more expensive, the girls in the troop would make even less money from it. Just don't take it out on these young girls, they have no control over the baker. It is tougher than you would think to change..... More
thin mints are good
GAS!!!!
I like the taste of Thin Mints but the reduced iron content gives me such constipation
Done-Bee Tasty vitales yes indeed!!!
instead of picking cookies, a much healthier thing would be to pick popcorn. specifically Boy Scout popcorn
Actually, the Boy Scouts' popcorn is disgusting. Their mulch fundraiser is something the Girl Scouts should do, though. It makes tons of money for my brother's troop.
Actually, the Boy Scouts' popcorn is disgusting. Their mulch fundraiser is something the Girl Scouts should do, though. It makes tons of money for my brother's troop.
but the boy scouts are funded by the government
the girl scouts aren't
take your boy scouts popcorn and shove it..thanks
I am a mother to now 22 year old daughter. Back in the day Girl scouts was always fun for me, so I was excited about having my girl in it as well. Cookie time come, and I got so sick of how they push a very expensive, very unhealthy product on america! Why can they not do something else for fundraising? Glad there are recipes, I know lots of folks who can't support helping them, but loved the cookies. And thank you for putting out there, so we can enjoy them, maybe we can work on having a.... More
Keep up the good work girl scouts! I love your cookies
I didn't see super hydrogenated carcinogenic oil in the ingredient list there...they aren't genuine
I don't think you're being a downer, I thought it was sarcastically funny! Mass produced food always has the 'better' ingredients, yum.
are you always so happy or do the sweet little girl scouts anger you? maybe you need to work on that!
I work in a girl scout cookie bakery. We aren't allowed to make the same exact cookie that we produce for girl scouts, but we make very close versions in some cases.
For example, we make a Mint Thin (not Thin Mint) for Walmart under the Great Value brand. It's made on the same line, same equipment, same packaging (different printing on carton of course). Only difference is the base cake is vanilla, not chocolate. Same exact coating.
Also make close retail versions of the samoa and.... More
straight from the "girl scout cookie bakery." And you're right...people attribute magical qualities to these cookies.
My friend gave me this recipe and it literally takes me 10 minutes to make a batch, they are SO easy!
http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2009/12/peppermint-patties.html
in this lawsuit-happy country somebody would get a bug up their butt and demand to see the girls' Food Handler's License. And GOD FORBID someone gets a hair in one. Kids these days can't even have a lemonade stand without someone worrying about the legality of it. I'm sure it would be more healthful for Scouts to sell what they make themselves but there will always be some turdface that wants to ruin it for everyone.
This post wasn't meant to imply that Girl Scouts sell homemade cookies. It was meant to give people an alternative to purchasing mass quantities of the cookies or to tame cravings in the off-season.
There are many things that girls learn from selling cookies. Here is just a short list: talking to the public, taking orders and keeping records, inventory tracking, accounting, marketing, good communication, presentation, professionalism, networking, how to prevent hypothermia, and dressing to represent one's organization. There are may more, but those are just some of the ones I learned selling Girl Scout Cookies for 10 years. I also know that it can be hard to sell Girl Scout Cookies at.... More
