It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when the Girl Scout cookies are being delivered! It’s still cold enough in many locations that the idea of one (or three) (oh, who am I kidding, ten) boxes and a book (or three, or ten) to read is a very tempting concept.
If you’re not aware of any local Girl Scouts, you can find your local chapter and contact them to buy some. Some chapters sell online, while others do not (WOE mine doesn’t!).
But more importantly, you may see Girl Scout troops outside supermarkets or in other locations selling from a booth. In New Jersey, the local troop used to set up their tables outside a bank ATM, which was devious and brilliant. I’ve seen troops set up outside grocery stores, outside drug stores, and in one brilliant move, outside a movie theatre.
We here at the Hot Pink Palace of Silliness are all about combining purchases that result from inconsistent impulse control. What exactly am I talking about?
Books and Cookies!Â
This is not a new idea, by any means. Amanda wrote up a recommendation guide in 2015 over at BookRiot. But this year, since there are new cookies and there are always loads of new books, we’re here to help any romance readers who want to pair a book recommendation with a box of cookies. Because who doesn’t want to do that?
Plus, there is a page where you can Meet the Cookies.
YES I WANT TO MEET THE COOKIES. I am very friendly to all cookies, especially the Girl Scout variety.Â
So here are our recommendations for pairing different Girl Scout cookies with romance. We’re sorry in advance.
Thin Mints®
Loved by many, devoured too easily, they’re chocolate covered peppermint wafers, and one of the few exceptions to my deep dislike of peppermint.
It’s easy to eat 25 cookies without meaning to – and let’s be real, “a sleeve of Thin Mints” is a completely legitimate “serving size.”
We recommend pairing Thin Mints with romances that are easy to keep reading. Bad Decisions Book Club reads pair very well with Bad Decisions I Ate an Entire Sleeve cookies.  So we wanted books that are sweet, with depth and satisfying deliciousness, and may involve some nostalgia.
Here are a few selections:
Act Like It is one of my favorites. I’ve read it almost as many time as the number of sleeves of Thin Mints I’ve devoured. Ok, not really. But close. Elyse recommends Mr and Mr Smith, for fun, sexy, and delightful reading, and I think anyone who has tried Julie James, especially Something About You, knows how compulsively readable her books are.
Caramel deLites® AKA Samoas®
Oh, Samoas.
So delicious, so few in a box. They are the sole exception to my deep dislike of coconut, which in all other culinary applications makes me think I am eating wax candle shavings rolled in sawdust.
Those who love Samoas try to savor them, but with about 5 or 6 per box (OH THE HUMANITY) it’s a difficult prospect.
To pair a book with Samoas requires a mix of specific ingredients. It should be unique, and worth savoring – or at least trying to – with complexity and depth. But then you read the whole series in two days because they’re that good and you can’t help yourself.
You know the types of series we’re talking about. Here are some suggestions:
Between the Psy-Changeling Series, the Crows series, and the Kate Daniels series, you can’t eat, or read, just one. It’s impossible.
Girl Scout S’mores
There appear to be two variations, one with chocolate covered graham crackers and creme icing (pictured), and a sandwich cookie with “marshmallowy” filling and chocolate inside.
Both look somewhat addictive and dangerous.
A good book to pair with either variety (and I maintain that a bad s’more is very hard to find) might be a remix or reinvention, or maybe a new combination of familiar elements. Our suggestions:
Superheroes, steampunk, and a vampire sorority. Perfect!
Shortbread/Trefoils®
I’ll be honest with you. I was a Brownie, a Girl Scout, and a Cadet when I was growing up, and I still have no idea if I am saying “trefoils” correctly.
Amanda says she pronounces it “TREE-foils” while I think most of my scout leaders said “treffles,” like one vowel away from “truffles.” Duolingo would probably tell me to pronounce it “trhe-fwah.”
Whichever it is, this is a very classic, simple, and tasty recipe, and pairs well with all sorts of beverages and books.
And, well, I’m almost sorry to share this link, but the Girl Scouts of the USAÂ have a page of recipes you can make using their cookies (like eating them by the box is not the best option?) and the ones for Trefoils are delicious-levels of tempting.
To pair with cookies or cookie-based recipes, we suggest books that work well one their own, but also work spectacularly as part of the series:
Each one is a terrific stand-alone, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface, and there’s more after (and before) the book, too.
Lemonades
Lemon icing on shortbread?! How is it that I’ve never had this cookie available to me?
I am telling y’all, that is among the worst kind of geographic restriction, because I love all things with lemon.
It’s lemon icing on shortbread! Those are three of my favorite words in one sentence!
And they’re vegan? I am so sad that these are not in my area. I’m going to have to take a road trip.
So for books, of course we need a mix of sweet and angst, tart and smooth, so here are our ideas:
You know that feeling when you’re reading a book that grabs you right in the squeezy feels, and you’re smiling and your eyes might possibly be tearing at the same time? That’s what we’re going for here.
Savannah Smiles®
I learned last year about these after Amanda was upset that her local troops in Boston didn’t carry Savannah Smiles®. But since I’d just moved father south, I was “south enough” that our local troop had about fifty-seven cases of these cookies.
Apparently, they’re very popular. Amanda says they’re terrific – very light, very refreshing, and sweet, though the powdered sugar gets everywhere, she says, so don’t eat them in bed.
I think an ideal book match would be something that leaves you smiling with a little bit of tartness, don’t you think? Here are our wide-ranging suggestions:
Tagalongs® / Peanut Butter Patties®
When I was a kid, Tagalongs were my favorite, even above Thin Mints. They’re so rich, and very indulgent – a few go a long way.
Which is a good thing because there aren’t many in a box. Each cookie in the box packaging gets the equivalent of a 3000 square foot condo to itself. There’s probably a whirlpool bath, too. Same is true for the Samoas®.
For book matching, I’m going entirely with nostalgia and longtime favorites.
These work as stand-alones, so you can get an entirely satisfying story in one title, though one is part of a trilogy. They are timeless and good no matter when I pick them up for a re-read.
Do-Si-Dos® / Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
Obviously these and the Tagalongs® are off-limits if you’ve got nut allergy dangers, but if you’re not allergic, these are pretty good. I always preferred the Tagalongs®, but the adults I knew who bought cookies bought a ton of these.
An oatmeal cookie with peanut butter filling is a pretty unique pairing, one that I don’t see elsewhere in cookie recipe books and magazines (and I see a lot of those because COOKIES.) So to match books for these cookies, we went with unique combinations of elements.
Here are our suggestions:
American historical with millionaires, NFL with friends to lovers, and historical adventure/ suspense? Something for everyone!
Thanks-A-Lot®
It’s really tempting to read that name with some sarcasm or dry irony.
“Thanks-A-Lot, Girl Scouts. I haven’t left the house in four days and have subsisted entirely on cookies.”
However, there is nothing to be sarcastic about when a cookie is shortbread with a chocolate base.
Chocolate and shortbread! HELLO DELICIOUSNESS I’LL TAKE FOUR BOXES THANKS-A-LOT.
Plus, “Thank you” is embossed in five languages – English, French, Chinese, Swahili, and Spanish. And I really like languages so I’d have a grand time making towers with my (ahem) boxes of cookies.
So for books, here are our suggestions – books that expanded our language and definition of what romance is and can be:
Toffee-Tastic™
This is a gluten free butter cookie with toffee chips. I have never had one of these, either, but I’m betting the flavor and the enjoyment sticks with you (and with your molars). I love anything toffee but the thought of it probably makes my dentist cringe.
Now Charlotte McCourt, a Girl Scout from New Jersey who wrote a brutally honest review of each cookie (and went on to sell close to 17,000 boxes so never let anyone tell you reviews don’t work) said that the Toffee-Tastic is “a bleak, flavorless, gluten free wasteland” that is, alas, “flavorless as dirt.”
On the other hand, a website by the name “Shitty Gluten Free” (I LOVE THIS NAME) says they’re not too bad.
I am going to hope one of you can share your opinion about the Toffee-Tastic™.
Now, I am definitely not going to be all, “these books are bleak and flavorless!”
Oh, HELL, no. There are books that are deeply flavorful, as in they have wonderful, rich world building, and they stick with you long after you’ve finished them. (And if you’re not on board with Toffee-Tastic, by all means, substitute your favorite cookie!)
Originally, I had wanted to recommend Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope, but it’s not available for the moment. But when it comes back, GRAB IT.
Trios®
This is another gluten free cookie, but it’s chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal, and those are all words I really like — and that my husband especially likes.
He has seasonal cookie requests, in fact. For Hanukkah, every year I make him Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread (a Martha Stewart Magazine classic recipe), and for his birthday I make chocolate chip oatmeal walnut cookies.
I’m not sure how these would compare, but I’m curious. Familiar ingredients, gluten-free so more people can enjoy them… could be good! (I confess, many of the gluten-free recipes I’ve tried have not have particularly good texture or flavor, but I keep trying).
But despite my lack of certainty on these cookies, I am certain about these recommendations, all of which are favorites of yours, and site bestsellers, too.
Your turn! What is your favorite of the Girl Scout Cookies? Are there annual cookie sales from other groups that you wait for each year? And what book would you recommend we pair with your favorite cookie?Â
Thin Mints are the only GS cookies we buy because they are my husbands favorite and I have no self control.
Therefore, I have to share the cookies AND the calories. If I had my pick, I would pick Tagalongs, Trefoils, Samoas and Thanks-A-Lots. Did I mention no self control? We used to buy large quantities of GS Cookies and freeze them. Of course that was when I was younger and the scales were much kinder.
My favorites are Samoas/Caramel deLites. If I’m not deliberately pacing myself, I can knock off a full package of ’em in one sitting.
Thank you for this! I work at our local council and this is such a positive article! Thank you for including both bakers – that’s why there are different cookies/names. The money earned from the sale of the cookies helps girls do things like go to camp. It helps their troops do things like take a trip. And yes, it helps their local council to be able to offer quality programs.
I love the Lemonades and the new Smores.
Oh, and no one really knows how to pronounce Trefoil. 🙂
TANYA. You have made me feel SO MUCH BETTER about not knowing how to say Trefoil out loud. As a former Girl Scout who went camping, volunteered all over the place, and sold cookies, thank you for being part of the organization!
I’m unconvinced that comparing something favorably to Razzles counts as “not so bad.”
For Thin Mint fans, Oreo makes a mint-filled, chocolate-covered cookie … which is available year ’round (yes, I am an enabler … he he he).
Wait, so Do-si-dos are Peanut Butter Pirates? They even look the same.
I once found a really great recipe for a Thin Mint analogous cookie, and I deeply regret it. The only thing saving me is that there is a limited supply of Thin Mints (and candy cane JoeJoes). Don’t try to beat the system.
Off to hunt down some Girl Scouts…
I loved being a part of the girl scouts and I’m so happy to have just moved someplace where its easier to find cookies being sold.
Thin mints, tagalongs and do-si-dos are my favorites and have been since I was a girl scout. Of the new ones I’ve only tried the smores, the ones with the graham cracker base and they were delicious. Now I want to try some of the others especially the thanks-a-lots and the lemonades.
You know, I don’t think the GF Toffee-Tastics are that bad. The only reason I don’t buy more of them is that they’re so expensive.
And as a good cookie enabler (aka Area Product Manager), I am posting a link for the cookie finder app: http://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/all-about-cookies/How-to-Buy.html
Inspired recs! I am currently enjoying my Do-si-dos with Beautiful Player, the one Christina Lauren book that has eluded me for so long. It definitely requires the substantial qualities of an earthy peanut butter oatmeal cookie.
I live in Portland, and a few years ago an enterprising young woman set up a table to sell cookies outside a medical marijuana dispensary. Now that all pot is legal in Oregon, I’m expecting to see news reports of tables set up outside retail outlets. I’ll keep y’all posted.
I love you guys so much! This might be the best thing on the internet right now!!!
@Joanie: LOL – no, your comment might be the best thing on the internet right now!! Thank you!
Y’all, I live in GS Cookie paradise–one council sells cookies in the fall (outside the library!) and the neighboring council sells in the spring. Between them, they have all the versions of All. The. Cookies.
By judiciously freezing extra boxes we have GS Cookies year round.
Our faves are Samoas–we buy lots and lots of these, and Thin Mints. I love the Lemonades, my husband likes the peanut butter ones.
Tre-foil, short e (sorry Amanda not tree) and foil as in aluminium foil. Brought up in Oxford with the knowledge of what an architectural trefoil was from an early age, but UK Girl Guides don’t do cookies, so you win some, you lose some.
My daughter is a GS this year and considers it a moral imperative to sell a veritable crapload of cookies. And since she’s nailing as many booth sales as she can manage, she’s doing pretty well, overall.
Oh, and Thin Mints are life.
Girl Scout cookies and Romance novels. I will take a box of each for each book please! How delicious 🙂
Loved this post. I had no idea GS cookies had regional variations. Love love love Savannah Smiles but my family has different ideas. We bought five boxes this weekend for an even 20 bucks. Sav Smiles, Samoas, Tagalongs, and two boxes of Thin Mints. I expect they’ll last a week or so. TG books aren’t sold seasonally!
New nutritionist has me eating mostly bison, berries, sweet potatoes & bell peppers… but I think frozen thin mints with fluff are worth the calories. They only come once a year and I’ve been the cookie mom/booth coordinator/samoa hoarder – once you’ve frozen your ass for a 50 cent profit you will buy from any girl scout as a show of solidarity.
I just ordered an even $20 as well, Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos. The daughter of one of my co-workers is a Girl Scout so the deliciousness comes right to my office. I’ll have to hide a couple boxes so Older Son and I are assured of getting some, otherwise Younger Son AKA Vacuum Cleaner will suck up all five boxes before we even get a taste.
@Katherine: With fluff? Marshmallow fluff? Be still my heart.
Well I guess I need to go order cookies from the form in the office kitchen 🙂 I was surprised at how well my cookies and book likings matched up! Might have to try the lemonades now since I love all three of those book.s
If you can stand to do it … freeze a box or a sleeve of Thin Mints. On a hot summer day, enjoy the frozen cookies with a glass of iced tea. Beach and e-reader optional. You’re welcome.
As a former GS leader, I love this. Thanks for including Indigo.
BTW have you guys tried the Thin Mints flavor of granola bars from Quaker? They are FAAABULOUS!!!
Having just started to eat low sodium, I’m now wondering if Girl Scout cookies will be (yet another) thing of the past. Thanks for a fun post!
@EC Spurlock: re: Younger Son AKA Vacuum Cleaner- my older brother was (and is still) known as the Food Phantom. He struck at night and ALWAYS ate with uncanny accuracy whatever it was you were looking forward to.
Even though he moved out of my parents’ house years ago, he still manages to ding my mom whenever he forages in their kitchen. He hasn’t gotten me in years… I never gave him keys. Lol.
As a lifelong introvert and former Girl Scout, the only things that made cookie drives tolerable were that A) they sold themselves and B) my parents really loved me. They kindly took the forms to their respective work places, collected the funds, and then distributed the cookies. No involvement on my part necessary.
I’ve no idea how much my troop benefitted from this overall, but it was the only way I ever managed to sell any. The sales tables which required speaking to lots of strangers? No dice.
Last thing: gotta say, the one who set up a table outside the pot dispensary? Evil genius. Hopefully, she’ll go far.
Is it weird that I’ve never seen anyone selling Girl Scout cookies? I know we have GS Troops in the area, but I have no idea where they set up to sell these.
@kitkat9000: as a fellow introvert, I used to take my little sister along when I went out to sell cookies. She did all the talking, I just kept the records.
Back when I was selling, the precursor to the Trefoil was a delicate little sugar-sprinkled shortbread cookie called the Scot-tea. To me, it was way better than the Trefoils, and I could eat them by the box-full. Since they are no more, I am going to pair them, retrospectively, with another classic lost love story, “Frenchman’s Creek” by Daphne DuMaurier. Sniff.
Just got my cookie order delivered today!! Split mine between an online order for a local troop, and an order to be delivered in April via friend’s co-worker. I may have opened the box of Tagalongs and eaten two .. or three already. Good thing I got a box each for me and my husband! The Thin Mints will go in the freezer, and I’ll try to savor the Samoas. Anyone else like to put them on their pinkies and eat around the outside?
Just trying Trefoils and Savannah Smiles this year, but they look tasty! I was a Girl Scount very, very briefly in my youth, and missed cookie-selling season altogether.
I am going through a cold which had the terrible indecency to show up right between last weekend when we had company and this weekend/later this week when my parents are leaving and my aunt is visiting. Right now, I am going through the can’t taste anything stage, and I sent a text to my mom about how the packed lunch she made for me tasted like saw dust and mom makes good packed lunches. So the reference to coconut tasting like saw dust was hilarious. Enough that I told my dad, and he doesn’t like coconut. He’s the only one in the family like this.
Also, I wasn’t a girl scout, but my sister was and mom had to be a leader, and one of the scouts’ sisters was my age at the time, so I participated in many meetings and trips.
When I was in Girl Scouts, we said it “tree-foils.” I don’t think my area has the lemonade ones but I really want to try some. My go-to have always been Samoas (or “Caramel DeLites” as I’ve seen some boxes say) with Thin Mints as a close second.
I second the recommendation that OreoTHINS in mint are nearly identical tastewise to a thin mint. And they’re probably, emphasis on probably, less calorie laden.
Dosido’s are a favorite of mine. They were called savannahs back in the day when I was a wee diva selling cookies myself.
I’m addicted to the Toffee-tastics and I did grumble about the price increase on them. The last two years, they’ve been the same price as the other cookies, so telling me they cost more because they are “new” wasn’t an acceptable excuse. They are more like a shortbread than a butter cookie. One detail is that the lack of gluten means that the cookie isn’t quite as rock hard as regular shortbread, but it’s not a soft cookie either. The chips are like finely crushed hard toffee bits. They aren’t soft enough to get caught in your dental work and they tend to be well distributed through the cookies.
I rather suspect that the reviewer panned these because they wanted to have some for their own. Both of the previous years, these were some of the first to sell through. Both years, I had to hit at least four grocery stores to get my supplies. I put them in a gallon freezer zip bag and they stay nice and fresh.
Best post ever.
This is the best post EVER. It is as wonderful as Toffee-Tastic is disgusting. I could not get ANYONE to take that box off my hands. It was astounding the way those cookies were simultaneously sickeningly sweet and flavorless. Like a miracle! I also was grossed out by the super-sweet smores cookie, but my younger kid at least liked that one.
Oreo’s version of Thin Mints is delicious but it DOES NOT SUPPORT THE GIRL SCOUTS, who are so awesome and adorable and feminist and badass and supportive of all kinds of girls and families! Take two Thin Mints and put some fluff in between them if you must.
I am all about the Thin Mints and Do-Si-Dos, because I am CLASSY LIKE THAT.
The Lemonades are my favorite – perfectly balanced and satisfying.
I am doomed. Doomed, I say. I have just bookmarked the Girl Scout cookie finder. And now I have an urgent need to go to my local grocery store, because, well, there might be Girl Scouts selling cookies there. Maybe.