I used to work on a Girl scout camp for a few Summer’s over in Massachusetts, it was a great experience and I made friends for life! Whilst over there I stumbled upon a few firsts – such as s’mores, but also girl scout cookies, which are extremely delicious, come in many varieties and started as a method of fundraising! Here’s 3 Girl scout cookie recipes you can make at home – all different levels of difficulty, but all delicious in their own way! Hope you give them a go!
Homemade Girl Scout Cookies
s’mores cookies
This is probably the easiest one to make out of them all. Simply grab a biscuit, dollop some marshmallow fluff on top, add another biscuit to wedge the marshmallow together, press down and scrape off any excess marshmallow on the sides, dunk the marshmallow biscuit in chocolate, shaking off with a fork gently to remove any excess chocolate, place on a lined baking tray, repeat with remaining biscuits, put in the fridge to set the chocolate before serving or storing in an air tight container.
Samoas Cookies
Probably the most intense recipes of the three, but most rewarding in terms of depth and layers to it.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar, until softened and combined. Put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl – the baking powder, salt and flour, mix briefly, then in batches beat into the creamed butter mixture, add in the vanilla extract and milk and keep mixing through until the dry ingredient are all in and it is a consistent dough that can press together. This is quite a delicate mixture and need chilling, place down on baking parchment or in cling film and roll out to 10mm thick, cover and place in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up. It will not hold shape without being chilled and is very sticky!
Pre-heat the oven after about 50 minutes to 160fan/180c/350f or equivalent. Add the coconut to a lined baking tray and bake in the oven moving it with a wooden spoon every few minutes until toasted, leave to cool in a tin to one side once golden brown, do this step carefully whilst the dough is chilling, keep your eye on it as it can catch very quickly.
With the dough chilled, roll out to approx. 5mm thick using flour as needed, work quickly and stamp out with a cookie cutter approx. 2 inch circle shapes, then use a small cookie cutter (or lid, the video shows this well) to make a donut style shape with a hole in the middle, keep it floured, repeat and gather up any excess dough that can be chilled and rolled out to make more.
Baked on a lined baking tray for 10 minutes, until golden brown, transfer to a wire rack to cool. Whilst they are cooling, mix ¾ tin of caramel with the coconut, stirring well to combine, it should be a mixture easy to mould and shape, so if you like slowly add the caramel stirring through, until you have a mixture you can mould that doesn’t change shape.
With the rest of the caramel you can spoon a thin layer onto the cooled cookies, repeat with them all. Follow up by adding the coconut mix on top, pinching it together to shape all around the cookie. Repeat with all the cookies.
Sit the cookies into the melted chocolate to set the bottoms of the cookie, place on a lined baking tray, then drizzle the dark chocolate over the top with a fork, decorating to your liking, repeat and place in the fridge to set, storing in an airtight container or eating straight away if sharing! Very, very nice indeedy!
Thin Mints
My favourite taste wise out of the 3 in terms of likeliness to the real thing, keep the dough cold like the samoas cookies too.
In a large bowl, add the flour, cocoa, salt, cornflour and baking powder, mix to combine until a nice even colour. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until fully combined, now add the vanilla and peppermint extract, egg yolk and whole egg into the mix and whisk again to combine. In batches now add in the cocoa mixture in the other bowl, whisking as you go to make a dough. A spatula may help scrape down from time to time.
On your worktop, put down a large piece of baking parchment, add the dough, then another piece of parchment on top, roll out until thin – roughly 5mm or so. Place this onto a large baking tray and place in the freezer for an hour, if you don’t have much space in the freezer, halve the dough or even into thirds with the baking parchment still on top and bottom, stacking on a smaller baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven after about 50 minutes to 160fan/180c/350f or equivalent. Once the dough is firm, take it out, and cut out using a cookie cutter (any size you wish, but 2-3 inch cutter works well) using a little flour if it starts to stick, work fairly fast while the dough is firm to help stamp and keep the shape. You can gather up excess dough, re-roll it in leftover baking parchment, chill it and re-use it as you go.
Place in the oven for 10 minutes, allow to cool on a wire rack fully, then dunk in a bowl of melted chocolate, rolling with a fork all over to coat, lifting out and shaking off any excess, then placing in the fridge to set on a lined baking tray. Serve once set or keep in an airtight container, very nice!