The Weekly Dish: 1.5 million boxes of Girl Scout Cookies to arrive in Memphis

The wait is over: Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Samoas, Trefoils.

Girl Scout Cookies are here.

And there will soon be lots of Girl Scouts happy to sell you a box of your favorite flavors.

During the next two months, the Girl Scouts Heart of the South expects to sell almost 1.5 million boxes of cookies in the Memphis area alone. With an average of 25 cookies per box, that’s over 35 million cookies to be enjoyed.

Friday and Saturday are the official pickup days for Scouts to gather all the pre-orders they have taken. During that two-day period, more than 520,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies will be loaded into waiting cars, vans, pickups and moving trucks driven by volunteers.

In addition to the pre-orders, Girl Scouts will begin booth sales Feb. 22.

The booth sales increase the number of boxes that will be arriving for Girl Scouts Heart of the South to 1,419,648.

Booth sales continue through March 17. You can find girls selling cookies at Kroger, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and numerous other stores around town.

For those who do not know a Girl Scout, no need to worry. There is now a “Girl Scout Cookie Finder” app for your phone that helps you find a cookie booth near you.

And just because you may not be eating cookies these days doesn’t mean you can’t support our local Girl Scout troops.

Kimberly Crafton, Girl Scouts Heart of the South chief governance and strategic engagement officer, explained: “Each year the girls are told: ‘I can’t eat cookies.’ ‘I’m diabetic.’ ‘I’m on a diet.’ That doesn’t mean that people can’t support the Girl Scouts and buy cookies. If you can’t eat them, treat them. Donate them to our troops.”

Each year, Girl Scouts Heart of the South hosts a “Troop to Troop” drive — the Girl Scout troop to military troops. During booth sales, people can donate the cost of a box or boxes of cookies to the girls. That money goes in their Troop to Troop funds. At the end of cookie season, councils from all over the country ship cookies to a specific location and then cookies are shipped out to troops all around the globe.

“It’s a great way to support Girl Scouts without the temptation of having the cookies in the house to eat, and it gives our troops a little taste of home,” Crafton said.

She shared three recipes that she uses for leftover cookies every year — from a milkshake to cheesecake to brownies.

“Just a note to let everyone know — the cookies freeze beautifully so that you can use them later on in the year for the holidays for some of these recipes. You just have to have the willpower not to eat them,” Crafton said.

No matter how long they last, you can feel good about eating a Girl Scout Cookie.

According to Crafton, almost 1 million Girl Scouts nationally participate in the cookie program each year, generating an average of nearly $800 million in sales. All the net revenue raised stays within the troop’s area. Councils use cookie earnings to power amazing experiences for girls through their programming, while girls and their troops decide how to invest in impactful community projects and personal enrichment opportunities.

“Each of these little boxes of sweet treats host a lifetime of leadership experience within them — definitely one smart cookie,” Crafton added.

Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com, and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.

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Tagalong Milkshake

Your favorite peanut butter and chocolate Girl Scout Cookie in milkshake form. We recommend buying high-quality ice cream and hot fudge. Enjoy immediately.

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
8 Tagalongs or Peanut Butter Patties Girl Scout Cookies, divided
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup hot fudge topping
1/3 cup heavy cream

Step 1

Stir together condensed milk, peanut butter and corn syrup in a small saucepan, and heat over medium-low, stirring constantly, until thoroughly combined, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, and set aside. (Store leftover peanut butter sauce in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 3 weeks.)

Step 2

Finely chop 3 of the cookies, and reserve. Roughly chop remaining 5 cookies; place in blender. Add ice cream and milk to blender, and process until smooth, about 1 minute.

Step 3

Place 1/4 cup of the peanut butter sauce in microwaveable bowl, and microwave on high until warm, 15 to 30 seconds. Repeat process with hot fudge topping.

Step 4

Beat heavy cream with an electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment on high speed in a small bowl until medium peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes.

Step 5

Spread half of warmed peanut butter sauce and half of warmed hot fudge topping along bottom and sides of 2 tall glasses. Fill each with ice cream mixture, and top each with a dollop of whipped cream. Sprinkle with reserved finely chopped cookies.

Serves 2.

Lemon Trefoil Cheesecake

A smooth, delicate cheesecake. Lemon zest in the crust brings out the tang of the cheese.

7 ounces Trefoil cookies
2 tablespoons plus 1 tsp. finely grated fresh lemon zest (from about 3 lemons), divided
1 cup sugar, divided
12 ounces fresh, mild goat cheese 
10 ounce cream cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
8 to 10 medium strawberries, stemmed

Step 1

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Crumble cookies into a food processor and pulse until finely ground. In a medium bowl, toss 2 tbsp. lemon zest with 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar. Add cookie crumbs and mix well. Butter sides of an 8-inch pan with a removable rim and press cookie mixture into the bottom; bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in pan.

Step 2

Lower temperature to 275 degrees. In a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat goat cheese and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add remaining lemon zest, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, the orange zest, 3/4 cup sugar, the sour cream and the vanilla; beat well. Scrape bowl and add eggs; beat well.

Step 3

Pour batter onto crust and bake about 1 hour, or until set on the sides but still quite jiggly in the center and only slightly sticky. Turn oven off, crack oven door, and let the cake cool in oven 2 hours. Remove and let cool completely; then chill, covered, at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Step 4

Run a thin knife between cake and rim of pan and remove rim. Thinly slice strawberries, then toss with remaining 2 1/2 tbsp. sugar and lemon juice. Arrange on the cake.

Makes one 8-inch cheesecake; 12 to 16 servings

Mint Chocolate Cookie Crunch Brownies

Chocolate and mint abound in this delicious brownie recipe. Crush your Thin Mint cookies for this brownie recipe that has a special mint cookie crunch.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups Thin Mint cookies, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brush a 13- by 9-inch pan with butter. Melt the chocolate and butter in a large bowl over a double boiler. Transfer the melted chocolate to a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, being careful to incorporate each egg. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt at once. Stir to combine. Fold in half of the chopped cookies. Spread the brownie batter evenly in the pan, and top with the remaining chopped cookies. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, and cool completely before slicing and serving.

Makes 36 brownies.

— Recipes courtesy of Girl Scouts Heart of the South