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Girl Scout Cookies: the original recipe and more …

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GirlScoutCookiesThin Mints may account for 25% of Girl Scout cookie sales, but the thin chocolate wafers bear little resemblance (other than being cookies) to the original girl scout cookies.

The first Girl Scout troop was organized over a hundred years ago (March 12, 1912) in Savannah, Georgia. Selling cookies — a way to finance troop activities — began as early as 1917 when they were sold in an Oklahoma high school cafeteria as a service project.

Girl Scout cookies were originally baked in home kitchens with moms as the “technical advisers.” In July 1922, The American Girl Magazine, which was published by Girl Scout national headquarters, printed a cookie recipe that had been distributed to the Council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. The approximate cost of ingredients for six- to seven-dozen cookies was estimated at 26 to 36 cents; the suggested sale price was 25 or 30 cents for a dozen.

In the 20s and 30s the simple sugar cookies baked by Girl Scouts and their mothers were packaged in waxed paper bags, sealed with stickers, and sold door to door.

The Original Girl Scout Cookie Recipe (circa 1922)

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • Additional sugar 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.

Present Day Girl Scout Cookies

For present day cookie recipes, check out the websites of the two licensed Girl Scout cookie bakers: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers, and on www.pinterest.com/GSUSA. For a list of specific cookie ingredients go to Meet the Cookies.

If you’ve ever wondered why your cookie may be called Shortbread instead of Trefoil, it’s because the two bakers call them different names. The cookies have a similar look and taste but the name and recipe vary with the baker. Both companies call their chocolate-mint cookie, Thin Mint. I guess you can’t mess with the gold standard!

The cookies, all of which are kosher, are sold by weight, not quantity. The size and number of cookies in the package varies with the baker, but are displayed on every package. The cookies are sold for different prices in different areas of the country with each of the 112 Girl Scout councils setting their own price based on its needs and its familiarity with the local market.

Eat Out Eat Well magazine cover, issue 5

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Is There A Polar Bear In Your Box Of Animal Crackers?

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Holiday animal crackers — in the classic box with the string handle and a holiday polar bear cub and mama in a snow globe on a starry blue background – can probably be found in your local market.  What kid (and some adults) wouldn’t want to grab a box or two!  But is there a polar bear on the inside, too?

A Bit Or Two About Those Little “Crackers”

Animal crackers, those easy to pop into your mouth crackers (cookies) in the shape of zoo or circus animals, are made from a layered dough– the way biscuits are made — but are sweet like cookies. The classic ones are light colored, slightly sweet, and crunchy – but some companies make frosted or chocolate flavored kinds, too.

Biscuits called “Animals” arrived on American shores from England in the late 19th century. Around the start of the 20th century, domestic bakeries, predecessors of the National Biscuit Company, now called “Nabisco Brands,” started producing “Barnum’s Animals” which looked like the circus animals found in the Barnum and Bailey circus.

Originally the package looked like a circus cage on wheels and full of animals. Perforated paper wheels used to continue under the bottom of the box and could be opened up allowing the circus cage box to stand on its wheels.

The little box with the string that we know and love – and can still buy (although without the perforated wheels) — was designed for the 1902 Christmas season – and sold for five cents. The string was for hanging the box from Christmas tree.  Obviously a design that was a home run, although now sold for about two bucks a box.

Is There Circus In The Box?

In 1948, the name of the cookies officially became “Barnum’s Animal Crackers” although the animals have changed over the years.  There have  been 54 different animals – but not all of them play together in the same box.

Today, each package has 22 crackers and a toss up of animals. Lions, tigers, bears, and elephants will probably always be a part of the menagerie – but dogs and jaguars have yielded to hyenas and gorillas. I expected to find a whole bunch of polar bears in my holiday box with the polar bear on the front, but the winter white animal was nowhere to be found.   Here’s a selection of what I did find.

How Many???

More than 40 million bright red, yellow, or blue circus boxes, each with a variety of animals, are sold each year in the United States and abroad. An animal cracker takes about four minutes to bake and 15,000 cartons and 300,000 crackers are made each shift – which uses up about thirty miles of string for the packages, or nearly 8,000 miles of string a year.

Although the circus box has gone through updates and changes over the years, it remains bright, colorful and fun. There have been three different and limited edition boxes produced in the last decade, still the same shape and size, but with a different design on the outside of the box.

Ingredients And Nutrition

Here’s what you’ll find in a box.  Note that there are two servings, not one in each box so adjust the nutrition accordingly. 

How You Eat Your Oreo Says Something About You

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Oh, Oreos!  We must love them because we eat 20.5 million of them a day.

Over 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced on April 2,1912, making them the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

They were first baked at the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory, which dates from the 1890’s, that runs from 15th to 16th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in New York City.  Now called Chelsea Market, it is a bustling office and food complex.  This photo is of an Oreo label that is showcased in the main lobby.

 

The Original Oreo

Nabisco’s new idea for a cookie was two chocolate disks with a creme filling in between. Early Oreos looked a lot like today’s Oreo with just a slight difference in the design on the chocolate disks.

Originally they came with either a lemon or vanilla creme filling. In the US they cost 25 cents a pound and were sold in cans with glass tops so customers could see the cookies. The vanilla creme filling was more popular and production of the lemon filling was discontinued in the 1920s.

Today they come with a whole bunch of different fillings like mint, chocolate, caramel; double stuffs; chocolate coatings; and colored holiday fillings.

Oreos weren’t the first sandwich type cookies on the market. Sunshine introduced Hydrox in 1910 two full years before Oreo’s debut. But it seems that Sunshine fell short in its marketing because Hydrox never became as popular as Oreo and production stopped in the mid 1990s.

Oreos:  An Interactive Food

One of the keys to Oreo’s success is its interactivity.  Think about it – you don’t just eat it — you can dunk it, bite it, or twist it apart.  Oreo lovers, psychologists, and food writers have all speculated about whether the way someone eats their Oreo indicates a personality type.

According to a History.com video, in 2004, Kraft (Nabisco is now a Kraft brand), surveyed over 2000 Oreo eaters and found that they are divided into three categories:

  • Dunkers tend to be energetic, adventurous, and extremely social. 87% of dunkers say milk is their liquid of choice for dunking.
  • Twisters — and who hasn’t twisted an Oreo – (I personally think it makes the Oreo last longer ‘cause you get two cookies) – tend to be emotional, sensitive, artistic, and trendy.
  • Biters are easy going, self-confident, and optimistic.

The survey also discovered that more women tend to be dunkers while men tend to be biters.  And, Democrats tend to twist, Republicans tend to dunk!

 

Some Stats

A serving of regular Oreos, 34 grams, has 160 calories, 7g of fat (2 saturated), 25g carbs, 1g protein,1g fiber, and160mg sodium.

According to the Nabisco label, there are about 15 servings in an 18 oz. bag. After checking lots of sites, the general consensus is that there are around 3 cookies in a 34 gram serving.  It sure would be nice if Nabisco would give us the stats per cookie rather than for 34 grams so the consumer could have more useable information!

 

Holiday Baking With Less Sugar And Butter — Really!!!

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It’s Christmas Cookie Time

In my family holiday season means, among other things, baking.  Lots of  cookies:  spritz, rolled, ginger bread men, meringues, Greek powdered sugar cookies; a savory carrot bread; poppy seed bread; and whatever dessert sounds good.  No fruit cake, though.

If I ever added up the butter and sugar calories in all of these baked delights, the number would be so staggering it would absolutely spoil the deliciousness.

I’ve been doing some research on lower calorie substitutions for the ingredients in baked goods.  Some I’ve tried and some I haven’t.

I’ve been decreasing the fat and sugar in the things I bake since this summer and in most cases have had a good deal of success.  I find that decreasing the amount of sugar by a third doesn’t even really affect the taste. I’m working up to decreasing by a half.  The true test will be the spritz cookies!

Some Baking Substitutions To Try

  • Use ¼  cup of applesauce and ¼  cup of vegetable oil or butter instead of a half cup of oil or butter – OR — replace half the butter or oil with unsweetened applesauce, pureed pumpkin, or mashed bananas
  • Use 2 egg whites or ¼ cup egg substitute for one egg; use 3 egg whites and 1 egg yolk for 2 whole eggs
  • Decrease the amount of sugar in your recipe by up to a half and add ginger, lemon zest, cinnamon, or cloves
  • Substitute nonfat sweetened condensed milk for sweetened condensed milk
  • Substitute evaporated skim milk for evaporated milk
  • Instead of sour cream use nonfat or low fat sour cream; pureed low-fat cottage cheese; or low or nonfat Greek yogurt
  • Substitute low or nonfat cream cheese for cream cheese
  • Substitute non-fat, 1%, or 2% milk for whole milk and half and half for cream
  • Substitute 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, chopped dried fruit, or chopped nuts for 1 cup of chocolate chips
  • Swap 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon of oil or water for one ounce of baking chocolate
  • For frosting use sliced fresh fruit with a dusting of powdered sugar; sweetened and flavored (vanilla, peppermint) nonfat cream cheese; or nonfat whipping cream
  • Use whole wheat flour or ground flax for up to half of your recipe’s white flour. Regular whole wheat flour will make baked goods heavier and denser.  Try using white whole wheat four that is higher in fiber and nutrients than refined flour but is lighter than regular whole wheat flour.

Animal Crackers: Giraffes And Tigers But Crackers Or Cookies?

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The Red (or yellow or blue) Box With The String

Remember that cute little red, yellow or blue box with the string on top and tiny little animals on the front and back?  After you open the box and the heavy waxed paper inside you’re rewarded with crunchy little animal crackers, usually in the shape of animals you find at the circus or the zoo.

How Long Have Animal Crackers Been Around?

In the late 1800s, biscuits called “Animals” were imported from England to the United States and in 1871 Stauffer’s Biscuit Company baked their first batch stateside.

Barnum’s Animals (Crackers), named for P. T. Barnum who ran the circus, the “Greatest Show on Earth,” were first made in New York City in 1902 by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco).   Barnum, an amazing self-promoter, had absolutely nothing to do with the labeling on the box and he never got a cent for it.

The famous string appeared when Nabisco designed the box to look like a circus wagon cage and then attached a string so it could be hung as an ornament from a Christmas tree.  It sold it for 5 cents a box. As we know, the package was such a success that it remains a year round treat – 40 million are made a year — although not at the same price!

Are They Crackers Or Cookies?

The crunchy little animals resemble crackers because they are made with layered dough.  But, because the dough is sweetened they have a cookie taste and consistency.

Over the years, 54 different animals have been represented. The most recent, chosen by consumer vote, is the koala. It beat out the penguin, the walrus and the cobra.  Some other animals are  tigers, cougars, camels, rhinoceros, kangaroos, hippopotami, bison, lions, hyenas, zebras, elephants, sheep, bears, gorillas, monkeys, seals, and giraffes.

Are They Good – Or At Least Okay for You?

The little box with the string contains about two servings.

  • Each serving (about 17 crackers) has 120 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.
  • The ingredients are:  enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, soybean oil, yellow corn flour, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, calcium carbonate, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, artificial flavor.
  • Although trans fat is not listed in the nutrition facts, the ingredients contain partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil (partially hydrogenated means trans fat).

When a product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, the FDA requires that the content be listed in the package’s Nutrition Facts box as “0g”. When a label shows 0 grams trans fat per serving and lists a “partially hydrogenated” vegetable oil (such as soybean or cottonseed, among others) in the ingredients, the product may contain up to 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving.

Other companies do make organic and/or whole grain animal crackers and should you be concerned about ingredients these would make a better choice.  Unfortunately, they do not come in the classic box with the string which, at least for my sons, was part of the allure.