Girl Scouts Cookie Oven review

When I was a kid, every Thanksgiving and Christmas my Father would bake these peanut butter cookies that were delicious; every year I looked forward to helping him bake these cookies. Now that I’m a father, I try to find similar activities to enjoy with my children. Sadly, I’m nowhere near the baker my father is; however, toy maker Wicked Cool Toys created the Girl Scouts Cookie Oven, making it easy to bake with my children.

In the box

• Girl Scouts Cookie Oven
• Thin Mint cookie kit
• Spatula
• Baking Pan
• Measuring Syringe
• Instructions

Along with the items above, I was also sent an additional kit of Thin Mint mix and a PB Sandwich mix.

Baking

It’s really easy to make the Thin Mints. The directions are easy to follow and there are only two packets of ingredients to use.

The first step is to dump the cookie mix into a large bowl. Next, you measure 9 mL of water and add it to the mix. You then stir the batter until it is lump free. You then use a spoon to scoop the batter and place 6 one inch cookies onto the greased baking sheet. Now, you place the baking sheet into the oven, move the slider all the way to right, and bake the cookies for 8 to 9 minutes.

After the baking period, you move the slider to the center and line it up with an arrow in the center of the oven. Be forewarned, the arrow is tiny and took me forever to find. This places the cookies in the oven’s internal cooling chamber; you let the cookies cool here for 10 minutes.

After the cookies have cooled in the oven, you slide the tray to the edge and remove it using the pan grabber at the end of the spatula. Then, you remove the cookies from the pan and place them on a plate. You then place the plate full of cookies in the fridge for 5 minutes of additional cooling.

While the cookies are cooling in the fridge, you can begin to work on the the topping. The first step is to empty the mint chips from the topping pack onto the baking sheet – after you’ve cleaned it of course. Then, you place the baking sheet in the warming station on top of the oven for 5 minutes. This should allow the chips to melt. After 5 minutes, you remove the cookies from the fridge and the baking sheet from atop the oven. You then use a butter knife to spread the topping onto the cookies. After the cookies are coated, you place them back in the fridge for another 5 minutes to allow the coating to harden. Once the 5 minutes is up, the cookies are ready to eat.

As you can see above, the cookies we made look nothing like real Thin Mints. That’s partly our fault, partly the fault of the product. From our end, the instructions tell you to use a toothpick to get the signature dimples all Thin Mints have and I skipped that step. From the product end, the topping just doesn’t go on all that smoothly and it starts to harden rather quickly; I wasn’t able to make the cookies look pretty before the topping began to dry up.

We also tested the oven by making the PB Sandwich cookies.

I’m not going to do another step-by-step, but the process is very similar. First you make the batter, form the cookies, and cook them. While the cookies are cooking you can make the filling, which involves mixing peanut butter and sugar. Once the cookies are cooked and cooled, you spread the filling on the bottom of one cookie and top it off with a second cookie to make a sandwich.

For the most part, making the cookies was extremely easy; although, I did run into a few issues. First, when adding the water to the Thin Mint mix, I found the suggested 9 mL wasn’t nearly enough; I had to add about 15 mL of water to get the batter to the right consistency. I had a similar issue with the PB Sandwich batter; although, they do warn you the PB Sandwich batter is meant to be a little bit dry.

The other issue I ran into was with the Thin Mint topping. Placing the chips on the warming rack didn’t melt them.

The picture on the left is what the instructions suggest the topping will look like after 5 minutes, while the picture on the right is what my topping looked like. My family tried making Thin Mints three times and each time we got a similar result. Each time I distributed the chips evenly and mixed them. Once I even tried melting them longer, but never got the desired results. I eventually found a combination involving the warming rack, placing them into the oven, and smushing them with the spatula, that allowed me to coat the cookies easily.

Taste

I thought the cookies were okay – nothing great, nothing awful. The Thin Mints were a bit chewy, but were very close to the Thin Mint flavor you find in a traditional Girl Scout cookie box. The PB Sandwich cookies weren’t bad either; however, they weren’t nearly as good as the ones you buy from the Girl Scouts. My kids on the other hand, thought the cookies were delicious.

I wish I had more to write about the taste, but you get so few cookies from each packet – 6 Thin Mints and 3 PB Sandwiches – that it’s hard to judge. Also, I think the oven is more about the baking experience than the taste of the cookies.

Conclusion

My family and I had fun using the Girl Scout cookie oven. It’s safe enough that you don’t have to worry about your kids getting burned and simple enough for them to learn to do it on their own eventually. You’re not going to make large batches of cookies, but you’ll definitely make some memories. I would recommend the Girl Scout cookie oven for a family who enjoys baking and wants to make it easier to include the kids.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Wicked Cool Toys. Please visit their site for more information and Amazon to order.