Opinion
Girl Scout cookies sold for more than one good cause
March 9, 2012
Girl Scout cookies are a type of cookie just about everyone knows about and loves. They are about as anticipated as Sweet Martha’s to Minnesotans. Sold countrywide, these cookies come in a total of eight varieties.
Time has brought many different varieties however three cookies remain mandatory: Thin Mint, Do-Si-Dos (peanut butter sandwich), and Trefoils (shortbread). According to the official Girl Scouts website Thin Mints have always been the most popular, but check out below to see the favorites on campus.
Cookie sales didn’t begin among the Girls Scouts until 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low started the organization. The girls would wrap their home baked cookies in wax paper bags, seal them with a sticker and sell them door to door for about a quarter per dozen.
The first Girl Scout cookie recipe was developed by Florence E. Neil who published her recipe in The American Girl magazine, urging troops to sell them. These sales have come a long way since the door to door selling. There are now only two licensed bakers to promote uniformity among the cookies, ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers. Out of today’s cookie list, Trefoils were the original, with their cookie cutout patented in 1935.
Girl Scout cookies can be found being sold door to door, at a booth set up in grocery stores, churches, schools and community gatherings. The official Girl Scouts of the United States America do not sell them online and urge the public not to buy them online as the main goal is to provide girls with basic selling and business skills, while earning revenue for their troops. The money that you pay for your Girl Scout cookies stays in the area where the troop who sold them is located. So next time you purchase Girl Scout cookies from that booth of girls you just can’t let down, know that your money is going to a good cause.
Try out Florence E. Neil’s recipe from The American Girl magazine:
An Early Girl ScoutCookie® Recipe
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar plus additional amount for topping (optional)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, fl our, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately eight to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six to seven dozen cookies.
Brittney Pfenning-Wendt is a columnist for the Student Voice.