Tagalong Cookies Recipe

Tagalongs (or Peanut Butter Patties as I knew them in my Girl Scout days) were always my favorite. There's just something about peanut butter and chocolate that only a cookie can make better.  Or ice cream.  Wait, that gives me an idea. . . .

What was  I saying?  Right!  Girl Scout Cookies are awesome. But it's not always GSC season! (see what I did there?)  So now you can make your own, at home, any time of year.  And since it uses the same recipe base as Trefoils and Samoas, you can turn your kitchen into a cottage industry of cookie goodness!

Step 1 Ingredients

First, you'll need the basic shortbread recipe, which you can find here.
Just to have it handy, here's a repeat of those ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 115g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 250g (2 cups) all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (peanut allergies?  try almond butter!)
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 8-oz milk chocolate  - you may notice my picture includes semi-sweet.  Mistake!  In fact, for an even more copycat type chocolate coating, use this one.

Comments

[SlashmasterAeoniX]

I'm tempted to try these...even though like the Girl Scout mom who posted before me, I would prefer to see people buying them. Lord knows I've spent enough years of my life standing outside of stores and begging people to buy my cookies. (I even learned how to sell 'em in Spanish for those sneaky people who pull that "Suddenly no habla Ingles" trick. ;D) Anyways, lovely tutorial! I look forward to trying them!

[darthpotato1]

I see what you did thar...

[brooklynbrownie]

These look so great! I can't wait to make them at home!

[imthemomthatswhy]

As a GS leader and mom, I would prefer that people buy our cookies (duh) but as a mom to a gluten free, egg free, peanut free girl scout...thanks for putting these recipes out there. It is so hard for her to work hard to sell these cookies but never get to eat them. Especially when all the other girls are eating them. If you want to support your local GS troop(s) but still eat the homemade version..give the troop $2. Each troop gets about $.50 - $1 per box (depending on the council) so you can give the troop their profit without buying the cookies. That way it is a win-win situation.

[Foaly7]

By far the best Girl Scout cookies there have ever been. We bought a box recently, but we could have just made our own...

[SageMinto]

I remember these!! :O

The GSC stopped selling them here in Massachusetts! Now I have the recipe to make them myself. MUAHAHA! >:D
Thank you for posting it.

[designgrrl]

Unfortunately your recipe has dairy and for some odd reason, this is one of the only cookies GS makes that is dairy free. My hubs is allergic to casin so dairy is out for us and he adores these cookies. BUT I am going to make this recipe for my peanut butter loving father.

[prickly vegan]

This one is easy then! Just replace the butter with margarine or vegetable shortening (I will do more 'research' to see if oil or something else can be used). The cow milk can be replaced with soy/rice/almond whatever other milk. And the chocolate coating? Forget milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is always better. ;)

Happy baking!

And thanks for posting all of these evil cookie recipes, Scoochmaroo! you're keeping at least one little vegan baker busy.... :)

[scoochmaroo]

You can swap the butter for non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening!

[peacenique]

Hey, what about those killer chocolate mint ones the Girl Guides have?
Can you make those?

[scoochmaroo]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Unauthorized-Girl-Scout-Cookie-Recipes/

[peacenique]

Oh wow scooch.. you're a Goddess!
Thank you!

[inkette]

Just a suggestion for making these look a little nicer for Presentation

Before adding the peanut butter filling to the cookie....Coat the bottoms first and set on wax paper until the chocolate hardens. Then place the coated-bottom cookies on a wire cooling rack over a cookie sheet. Next, add the peanut butter filling to the cookies. Slowly, pour melted chocolate over the top of the filling and cookie. The excess chocolate will drip over the sides of the cookies onto the cookie sheet. You'll then be able to remelt and reuse the excess chocolate for other things.

~

[PuzzleJenn]

Excess Chocolate: The chocolate you shake off ONLY because you want to have enough for ALL the cookies to get a coating. ;)

[scoochmaroo]

EXACTLY. It actually took me a few tries to figure that out. :D

[karlpinturr]

WAIT! - I don't understand - what is "excess chocolate"!?

[pianomonkey97]

I don't either. Such a thing exists as, "excess chocolate?" I think not.

[MorNiLachnan]

Does the peanut butter mix just need to be a frosting like consistency? I'm going to try with natural peanut butter.

The person with a dairy issue. Look online there are shortbread recipes that don't use milk and you should be able to swap out the butter for a stiff margarine.

[scoochmaroo]

Mine was more like pudding, but I think frosting might work out just fine.

[Marcos]

Jif?!? That stuff has more to do with Crisco (hydrogenate oil, AKA trans-fat) than it does peanuts!

Why not upgrade the mass-produced version to real food?

(I like Trader Joe's re-makes of popular products, because they are usually much better than the originals.)

[scoochmaroo]

Use whatever peanut butter you like. If you go all-natural, you may want to up the sugar quotient for a more authentic taste.

[Carleyy]

Just in case you thought I was all talk, i totally made these tonight. But they don't look at pretty as yours. I don't think I melted the chocolate right...

[scoochmaroo]

I did think you were all talk!

[SpinWard]

Making my favorite GSC at home...all year...at home!!
Thank you for the 'ible!!

[instruct39]

your making all the girlscouts mad because they are losing all their business! jk

[Carleyy]

Oh god, these are my favorites, I was contemplating going to the gym tonight, I think I'm just going to make these!