This month, the Girl Scouts launched a gluten-free chocolate chip shortbread (which, thank goodness, uses real chocolate chips and butter). The pilot offering is currently available in 20 “cookie councils” until March, after which they might vanish for good. If the response in the market is great, says Goodbody, they’ll think about making the cookies again next year.
Goodbody told us that although she doesn’t have exact numbers of how many gluten-intolerant cookie lovers have complained, there has “definitely been an increase” in the past few years. She told us of one such girl scout in eastern Pennsylvania: she has been faithfully selling the cookies for years, but this year is “a whole new world for her because now she can actually enjoy them.” Aww. Note that the cookies are not made in a totally gluten-free facility, but they do meet the 5 parts per million requirement set by the Celiac Support Association, which is more stringent even than the 20ppm gluten-free guidelines from the FDA.
Non-gluten-intolerant Girl Scout sweets freaks will be pleased to learn that this cookie marks the Girls’ first foray into chocolate chip cookie territory. (And health food nuts might be interested to know about the whole grain cookie also launched this year—a cranberry citrus crisp that sounds somewhat intimidatingly healthy.)
