When 8-year-old Asheville, North Carolina girl Wild Freeborn enlisted her dad's help to set up a cookie-selling website, all she wanted to do was hawk enough Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties to earn her troop a trip to summer camp. Sounds smart, right? After all, any savvy entrepreneur needs a website.
At first, Freeborn's strategy worked, reports Newsweek: She sold more than 700 boxes of cookies to local residents through the online form, delivering every box herself.
But some parents got mad, citing unfair advantage, and Girl Scout officials quickly demanded that Wildborn take the website down, pointing to the Girl Scouts of America's longstanding ban on online sales. "The safety of our girls is always our chief concern. Girl Scout Cookie activities are designed to be face-to-face learning experiences for the girls," says the Girl Scout website.
Many people see this ban as silly and archaic, since the point of selling Girl Scout cookies is to raise money and teach entrepreneurship to young girls. And the future of entrepreneurship is certainly in online marketing, not going door-to-door Avon Lady-style. I say the Girl Scouts should get with the times and not punish girls for using their smarts and taking advantage of their resources.
What do you think - should the Girl Scouts ban online cookie sales?
According to a report just yesterday from MSNBC, Girl Scout troops selling their cookies in Washington state are the latest victims of fraud. They have lost $100 so far due to fake $20 bills. This comes at a particularly rough time for Girl Scout cookie sales.
According to The Consumerist, a troop leader states that sales are down by as much as half. As The Consumerist states, "Girl Scout Cookies are not recession-proof." Apparently, they are also not safe from the fraudsters that seem to be sweeping our country, like Bernard Madoff and Robert Allen Stanford. As a result, troop leaders are defending themselves with counterfeit detecting pens. This specific troop of Girl Scouts in Bremerton, WA plans to sell more cookies this weekend, but with a cautious eye and a defensive pen.
A couple of nights ago, I was having dinner with a couple of people, when the topic of Girl Scout cookies came up. We all had stories about friends and co-workers who have convinced, cajoled and harrassed us into buying a box or two and eventually someone asked, "where are the actual Girl Scouts who are supposed to be selling the cookies?"
As a child, my parents always insisted that if my sister and I were to participate in a fundraising event that included selling things, we had to sell them ourselves. They refused to take cookies and candy into their workplaces and shill for us. We had to trudge around the neighborhood on our own to make our sales. We were both always so jealous of the friends who could simply have their father take the sales sheet into the office and come home that night with the sales quota met.
According to an article on CNN.com, the Girl Scouts of America actually stress that cookie sales should be done by the girls* themselves, however, most people recognize that fundraisers like this one often require a great deal of parental participation.
What's your take on fundraising sales like Girl Scout cookies and school candy sales? Should parents participate, or should the kids be the ones to do the work?
*I would like to note that Scott and I bought two boxes of cookies this year from actual Brownies, who were stationed just outside a local grocery store. However, it was the first time in years that either of us had encountered any real scouts.
It's January, the month for fresh starts, healthy eating and Girl Scout Cookies. Yes, that's right, sometime this month (start dates vary according to region), little girls in patch-laden sashes and perky uniforms will be knocking on doors and setting up tables, all in effort to raise funds via cookie sales.
However, in recent years critics have called into question the Girl Scout Cookie, because they of their negative health effects (particularly since they've historically contained trans-fats). There's even talk of doing away with the Girl Scout Cookie as a fundraiser altogether. However, for those of you who love your Thin Mints or Do-Si-Dos, take heart. There's another way to get your fix - make them yourself!*
Over the years, Nicole at Baking Bites has developed a series of cookie recipes that allow you to make all your favorites at home. This way, you can get your favorite flavors without all the questionable additives. In addition to the cookies mentioned above, she's also got recipes for Samoas and Tagalongs.
*If you'd normally buy a box or two from your local scout, consider giving a donation to make up for the lost cookie revenue.
The good folks at Chattanooga Bakery have seen fit to re-release their previously discontinued peanut butter permutation of the traditional choco-coated cookie, and not a darned second too soon. I'm here to tell ya, this li'l fella is some seriously good -- if nigh on violently sugary -- eating. With a crunchy, fudgy cookie as the foundation, a hearty slathering of extra-sweet peanut butter in lieu of the standard marshmallow and a silky chocolate coating, the confection bears an astonishing texture and flavor resemblance to the perennial Girl Scout vended fave, Tagalongs®, a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties®. Served frozen, per a suggestion on the box, it's simply a revelation.
The upside is that unlike the GSA confection, Moon Pies can be acquired year-round. The downer for those trapped north of the Mason-Dixon is that they're not especially easy to come across in stores. $17.99, plus $8.95 (give or take) shipping will net you 48 pies, but I'd daresay it's worth the investment at least once. Tell ya what -- if you don't like 'em, next time I see you, I'll spring for your R.C.
I'm often surprised to realize that many of the groceries I buy can be simply made at home. I tend to presume that cottage cheese just grows on supermarket shelves, for example, or that making vanilla requires complex machinery. So while it may be more convenient to throw these items into your cart than to cultivate them in your own kitchen, try making any of these eight treats at home the next time you're feeling bold.
The Girl Scouts of America have a new cookie baker for some parts of the country and, in a business move stupider than New Coke, have renamed some of their best-sellers (Though, as some of our readers kindly point out , other parts of the country have the "new" names for ages).
In my neck of the woods, Samoas are now "Caramel DeLites," which sounds like the name of a dietetic candy old ladies buy at the Dollar Tree. Tagalongs are now "Peanut Butter Patties, Do-Si-Dohs are "Peanut Butter Sandwiches" and Trefoils are "Shortbread," names which suggest either a wildly subversive anti-consumerist campaign a la No Logo (Declare Independence from Corporate Cookie! We Don't Need No Name-Brand Baked Goods!) or a newly minted Robotic Cookie Namer down at Girl Scout HQ. All-Abouts (which was a weird name, I admit) are now "Thanks-a-Lots." Try saying that un-sarcastically.
In honor of my favorite GS cookie, I created this Samoa Cake - layers of génoise cake brushed with caramel simple syrup and spread them with alternating layers of chocolate caramel ganache frosting and soft salty caramel, then iced with more chocolate caramel ganache blanketed in toasted coconut flakes. It's tall, rich and incredibly sweet, half-cake, half-candy bar. Take that, Caramel DeLite!
Once a year the Girl Scouts are unleashed on the world and ask us if we want to buy some of their cookies. As if we could even try to exist without their shortbread and minty chocolate wafers.
My favorite has always been the Samoa. Chocolate and caramel and coconut...wow, I used to eat an entire box in one sitting. But then like all addicts I'd want more and want to sell anything I could just to get a few more in my mouth. What can a person do if they love Samoas and they vanish for another year?
A former Slashfoodie herself, Nicole is the extraordinary baker behind Baking Bites -- a recipe blog for anyone with flour on their sleeves and a taste for the divine. She stepped away from the kitchen (actually, the horse stable) to chat with us a bit about life since Slashfood, and why her brownies are fudgier than mine. What have you been up to since leaving Slashfood? I write Baking Bites now. That's pretty much what I've been doing food-wise since I left Slashfood. It's not a very exciting answer.
So are you dedicating more time Baking Bites now? Well, before I wrote for Slashfood, I had a blog for a couple of years called Baking Sheet, which I updated a couple of times per week. I kept that going while writing for Slashfood, but after I left, I changed the name of the site and made it more formal. I dedicate more time to my personal blog now than I did while I was writing – and before I was writing – for Slashfood.
It's clear from reading about you that you love to cook everything, so why a site mainly baking? Because I like baking. All cooking is great, but for me, baking is really interesting. I like the flavors and how everything comes together. I love the magic and the science of the oven. Cooking for me is ... I don't want to say it easier, because I don't find baking difficult, but it is just not just as interesting to me usually. You can go from grilling a chicken to grilling a steak, but baking a cake is a little more special.
Anything happening in the kitchen today? Not at the moment. Last night I made a lemon cake and later I might make some flatbread. The flatbread isn't set in stone yet. I'll make a list of things that I want to make but it changes. I'll get a whim for something with mint or vanilla and I'll totally change my mind.
When I mentioned that Girl Scout cookie season was starting, there were many comments about Lemon Pastry Cremes, one of the retired cookie flavors that featured a light pastry cookie and a creamy lemon filling. As far as I've heard, the reason that they were discontinued is that they were switched from ABC Bakeries to Little Brownie Bakers, the second bakery that produces the Girl Scouts' cookies, and that Little Brownie Bakers lacks the right kind of equipment to produce them.
The Girl Scouts seems to retire one every few years, if not more often. Off the top of my head, I can think of several past favorites that are now gone.
Lemon Coolers were light, crisp cookies with a bold flavor and dusted in powdered sugar.
Double Dutch were chocolate, chocolate chip cookies.
Animal Treasures were just the same as the current "All Abouts" and "Thanks" cookies, with a butter cookie dipped in chocolate, as were Friendship Circles Cookies.
Ole Oles were light, round, powdered sugar-covered cookies with vanilla, pecans and coconut.
It's that time of year again: Girl Scout cookie season. This year all Girl Scout cookies are trans-fat free so you can eat them with slightly less guilt than before.
There are two bakeries that produce Girl Scout Cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers . Both produce some of the classic cookies, including Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils and Tagalongs (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties), but each of the bakeries make several cookies that the other does not. Little Brownie Bakers has three original creations this year. Sugar Free Little Brownies are little chewy chocolate squares "packed with chocolate chips" that are diabetic friendly and All-Abouts are all about "Enjoying life as a true Girl Scout" and appear to have a chocolate-flavored coating on one side.
ABC Bakers has Reduced Fat Cartwheels, which are "oatmeal rounds with a cinnamon burst in every bite" and lemon-iced shortbread Lemonades in their lineup this spring, as well as cookies with the odd name Thanks-a-Lot appear to be the same as the All-Abouts from LBB, although they have the words for "thanks" in five different languages written on them.
I'm planning on passing on both the All-Abouts and Thanks-a-Lots, but I'll consider getting a box of Lemonades with my Samoas, Tagalongs and Trefoils this year.
As if we didn't really need more reason to buy an extra box or two of your favorite Girl Scout cookies, I have just
stumbled across the website for one of two
companies that bake the Girl Scout cookies that send us into a thin, minty frenzy every Spring. The website is obviously
geared toward their happy little salesgirls, but they also list recipes, not for the cookies,
themselves, but that use the cookies as ingredients.
Samoas by themselves are pretty rich (I consider them candy, myself), but they can be used to make Mocha
Samoa Zuccoto, a chocolate cake-like base with a mascarpone and chocolate filling and crushed Samoas as a
topping.
Sound too rich? Then what about Levitating Layers, alternating layers of Samoas, sweetened cream
cheese, and chocolate pudding. And it's not just Samoas. You can use Tagalongs, Thin Mints, and Trefoils to make a
Peanut Butter Mint Bombe.
I'll just take my Cafe cookies with a cup
of coffee.
I have never been a member of the Thin Mint fan club when it comes to Girl Scout cookies. Certainly, every
year around this time, I do my duty of purchasing a few boxes of the cookies from co-workers (entrepreneurial girls
always get their parents to do all the heavy-selling), but I wasn't part of the frenzied masses who would buy five six,
seven boxes of Thin Mints, keep in the freezer, and eat year round. My favorites have always been the shortbread
Trefoils.
But this year, I tried something new, the Cafe Cookie, and I think I have found a new favorite. The cookies are
simple, plain cinnamon flavored cookies. They are a bit hard, but that, I suppose, is what makes them a cafe cookie -
for dunking in coffee? I don't care. I love them.
Once a year the Girl Scouts are unleashed on the world and ask us if we want to buy some of their cookies. As if we could even try to exist without their shortbread and minty chocolate wafers.
A former Slashfoodie herself, Nicole is the extraordinary baker behind 
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