Record holders: The Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania and Ernie Rich
Philadelphia
Date: February 27, 2009
Girl Scout cookie: Shortbread or Trefoil
Cookie weight: 75 pounds
Cookie diameter: 8 feet
Highlights and Details
To celebrate the Philadelphia Girl Scout Council's 75th anniversary of selling commercially baked Girl Scout cookies, the council commissioned a 75-pound shortbread cookie from local Girl Scouts, aided by restaurant pastry chef Ernie Rich. Chef Rich and the girls constructed the massive cookie out of 100 eight-inch-square shortbread cookies held together with icing and cut to shape. In 1934, Greater Philadelphia Girl Scouts was the first council to enlist the aid of a commercial baker in its cookie endeavors.
The Girl Scout cookie tradition began in 1917 as a humble home-baked-cookie sale by the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, OK. Girl Scout Juliette Gordon Low came up with the idea as a way to raise funds for her troop. In July 1922, the first standardized Girl Scout cookie recipe was published in The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scout national headquarters. Girl Scouts baked these simple sugar cookies and packaged them in waxed paper sealed with a sticker. As the cookie-sale phenomenon caught on, regional Girl Scout councils realized commercial bakers were the way to go. And so in 1936, the national Girl Scout organization sought to license the first commercial baker to produce its cookies. For more Girl Scout cookie fun facts, take the Girl Scout Cookies Forever! history quiz.
Craving Girl Scout cookies now? Try our "Almost Like Girl Scout Cookies" recipes.
