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Homemade Girl Scout cookies

ILED UNDER SWEET STUFF, BAKING BY NICOLE | 49 COMMENTS

Girl Scout cookie season is just around the corner. As usual, I’m not really planning to buy any of the Girl Scouts’ offerings - although I am happy to support local troops in other ways - because I know that I can make cookies that are as good or better at home. Girl Scout cookies still contain partially hydrogenated oils, even if they have decreased the amount to come in under the FDA’s definition of “zero trans fats per serving” (no more than .5g per serving). Homemade cookies are made with real ingredients - butter, sugar, flour, chocolate - and really do have zero trans fats. They’re still indulgent treats, but treats you can feel good about eating!

You can find recipes for four of the Scouts’ best sellers here, including an easy to make version of Thin Mints that you don’t need a cookie cutter to shape:

• Homemade Thin Mints - minty chocolate wafer cookies dipped in chocolate
• Homemade Samoas - shortbread topped with coconut-laden caramel and drizzled with chocolate
• Homemade Do-Si-Dos - crispy peanut butter sandwich cookies with a peanut butter filling
• Homemade Tagalongs - peanut butter cup-like cookies with a shortbread base

And if you’ve had enough of the cookies on their own, try using them in another way:

• No-Bake Vanilla Cheesecake with Thin Mint Crust
• Samoas Bars - samoas flavors in an easy to make bar cookie variation

After Eight mint and vanilla cheesecake

Serves: 6 Preparation time: 15 minutes cooking time: 20 minutes, plus cooling 2 hours

chilling time: overnight

Ingredients

125g light digestives

100g After Eight mints (12)

25g reduced fat spread

600g light or medium fat soft cheese

100g golden caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

125g fat free (0%) Greek yogurt

2 medium eggs

To serve, 100g fresh raspberries

1tbsp raspberry jam

Method

Lightly grease a deep 20cm cake tin with a removable base. Preheat the oven to 180˚C, 350˚F, Gas Mark 3.

Whizz the biscuits and the After Eight mints in a food processor, to make fine crumbs. Melt the low fat spread and add to the crumbs, until the mixture comes together. Tip into the tin and press down firmly to make a neat, base crust.

With an electric whisk, beat the soft cheese, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl and then add the yogurt, and the eggs, one at a time. Mix until well blended.

Stand the tin in a roasting dish and pour the filling over the crumb base. Bake for 20 minutes until it has just set around the edges but is still wobbly in the middle. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in there to cool slowly for a couple of hours: it will continue to cook and this helps to avoid the top cracking, so don’t open the oven door.

Refrigerate until ready to serve, preferably overnight.

To serve, loosen the edges of the cheesecake with a spatula and unmould onto a plate. Crush the raspberries lightly, combine with the jam and spoon on top.

Tip

The pure peppermint oil in After Eight mints gives a light mint flavour to the cheesecake crumb. The chocolate helps to reduce the amount of fat in the recipe, as it melts to bind the crumb together. You can use any combination of fruit on top; sliced clementines cut the sweet vanilla filling well.