girl scout cookie facts...

1. The cookies started out being baked in the ovens of various troop members. The first Girl Scout cookie sale on record took place in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in a high school cafeteria in 1917. At the time, a basic sugar cookie recipe was used and the cookies were packaged in wax paper bags and sealed with a sticker.

2. In 1933, you could buy one package for $0.23 or six for $1.24.

3. The cookies first started being commercially baked in 1934 and the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia were the first to go that route.

4. During WWII when there were shortages of sugar, butter and flour in the U.S., the Girl Scouts sold calendars instead.

5. In 1951, the consumer had only three Girl Scout Cookie options: Sandwich (like an Oreo, I suppose?), Shortbread and Chocolate Mint, which we know as the Thin Mint today. By ’56, they had added a vanilla sandwich cookie as well.

6. Thin Mints are the current best sellers, comprising 25 percent of sales. Samoas (ew, coconut) trail behind at 19 percent, Tagalongs come in at 13%, Do-si-dos at 11% and Trefoils at 9%. The other 23% is made up of all of the other varieties.

7. Elizabeth Brinton is known as the “Cookie Queen.” She sold more than 100,000 boxes of cookies over her Girl Scout career and more than 18,000 in one season alone. She was the first to abandon the door-to-door method and set up a booth in a high-traffic area (the D.C. metro stations). When asked the secret to her success, one of her responses was, “You’ve got to look them in the eye and make them feel guilty.”

8. Girl Scout cookies are kosher.

9. Only two bakers in America are licensed to make the cookies: ABC/Interbake Foods and Little Brownie Bakes.

10. You can make the early sugar cookie version yourself, if you want:

AN EARLY GIRL SCOUT COOKIE® 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, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.