Girl Scout Cookies are sold by Girl Scouts USA to raise money. The recipe for the basic sugar biscuits used dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. Thin Mints are the best-selling variety, accounting for 25% of total sales. The cookies are not sold in stores or online.
Girl Scout Cookies are packaged cookies sold by Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) to raise money for the organization. Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low began the concept of cookie sales as a fundraising business when Girl Scouts baked cookies from their homes and sold them door-to-door in the 1920s and 1930s. The recipe used was for basic sugar biscuits made from butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, vanilla, salt and baking powder. Before baking, the cookie dough was rolled out and cut into a clover shape with a cookie cutter. The clover is a three-leafed plant and is the symbol of the Girl Scouts.
The first commercially baked Girl Scout Cookies were sold at the district or council level in 1934 in Philadelphia and nationwide in 1936 when commercial bakers were licensed to bake the cookies. ABC, owned by George Weston Limited, and Little Brownie, related to the Keebler company and owned by Kellogg, are the two primary licensed bakers for GSUSA. Each local Girl Scout council chooses what each box of cookies will sell for and what time of year it will sell the cookies at malls and other in-person venues in its community. Many councils sell Girl Scout Cookies between January and April. Because GSUSA’s purpose in selling cookies is to raise funds, as well as to teach Girl Scouts skills and fundraising, cookies are not sold in stores or online.
Thin Mints are the best-selling variety of Scout Cookies, accounting for approximately 25 percent of total cookie sales. They are chocolate chip cookies covered in chocolate wafers with peppermint flavor. Four thin mints have 160 calories and 8 grams of fat. While the Girl Scout councils can choose which cookies to sell from many different varieties, they must sell the Slim Mints, Shortbread/Clovers, and Peanut Butter Sandwiches/Dosi-Dos.
Shortbread/shamrocks use the same basic recipe as biscuits, but are called clovers when baked from Little Brownie and biscuits when baked by ABC. They have a buttery flavor and a crinkle textured pattern in the shape of a Girl Scout clover. Four of these Girl Scout shortbread cookies have 120 calories and 4.5 grams of fat.
Peanut Butter Sandwiches/Dosi-Dos are also made to the same basic recipe by two different licensed Girl Scout bakers. Two crunchy oatmeal cookies sandwich a smooth peanut butter filling. Little Brownie’s version is Dosi-Dos, while the name Peanut Butter Sandwiches means cookies baked by ABC.
Other top-selling Girl Scout Cookies include Samoas/Caramel deLites and Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalong. Baked by Little Brownie like Samoas and ABC like Caramel deLites, these donut-shaped cookies have a toasted caramel-coconut topping with added chocolate strips. Two cookies have 140 calories and 7 grams of fat. ABC’s Peanut Butter Cupcakes and Little Brownie’s Tagalongs are covered in chocolate and feature a vanilla cookie with a peanut butter top layer. Two of these Girl Scout cookies have 150 calories and 8 grams of fat.
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