No matter what age you are, there is probably a small part of you that loves Girl Scout Cookies. A classic American snack, these treats have been around since 1917. They predate the internet, cell phones, and even electricity for much of the U.S — and they’ve stuck around for good reason. They’re nostalgic, delicious, and their sales support activities for over 3.2 million Girl Scouts annually. While the flavors have changed over the years, there is one cookie that was inspired by the original recipe: Trefoils.
Trefoils are shortbread cookies made with flour, sugar, oil, and a few other ingredients. They’re often thought of as the original Girl Scout Cookie, but, in fact, the first-ever cookies sold by Girl Scouts were simple, buttery sugar cookies. According to the Girl Scout’s website, back in the 1910s and 1920s, the cookies were handmade by young members with the help of their mother and originally sold as treats in schools. The Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, was the first to sell them, operating out of a high school cafeteria.
It wasn’t until 1922 that the concept became a national one, when Florence E. Neil published the recipe in the organization’s magazine. The ingredients list included butter, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking powder. The sugar cookies were to be rolled thinly and baked in a hot oven, and the measurements were enough to make about six dozen cookies.
From home kitchens to commercial bakers
Back then, the simple sugar cookies were sold in wax paper bags for around 25 or 30 cents per dozen. The Girl Scouts would go door-to-door around their neighborhoods carrying the bags, and in 1932, the Philadelphia branch had the genius idea to sell the cookies from the windows of the city’s gas and electric company downtown. Sales flourished, and by 1934, they put down their own spoons and hired outside help to make the cookies.
The Keebler–Weyl Company became the first commercial bakers to supply Girl Scouts with cookies, utilizing the organization’s trefoil logo for the design and agreeing to make a vanilla shortbread rather than a sugar cookie. The Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York followed suit a year later and became the first branch to use the name Girl Scout Cookies. In 1936, the national organization officially switched to commercially baked cookies, and the homemade sugar cookie was left by the wayside.
More than 60 flavors eventually followed, including some discontinued Girl Scout cookies we’ll never see again. However, the Trefoil shortbread has remained. Though it’s technically not the real first Girl Scout Cookie, it is based on the original recipe — and let’s face it, it’s still delicious.
