Today’s recipe is for homemade copycat Tagalongs – those fat peanut butter patties with a shortbread crust and thick chocolate coating.
Until they come out with healthy girl scout cookies (or at least vegan girl scout cookies) I’m not letting the girl scouts have all the fun: I just make my own! Last week I set up a “girl scout cookie factory” in the kitchen. By the end of the night, my little factory had successfully churned out batches of healthy Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs – all whole-grain, gluten-free, vegan, and without the trans fats unfortunately still found in regular girl scout cookies. (At least one of the girl scout cookie suppliers, ABC Smart Cookies, does now offer some vegan options: Thin Mints, PB Patties, Mango Cremes, Thanks-a-Lots, and Lemonades. But the cookies are manufactured by two different companies; if the ones offered in your area are made by Little Brownie Bakers—as are the ones where I live—none of the options are vegan.)
It makes no sense to me why an institution concerned with bringing up healthy young girls continues to produce and promote cookies containing artery-clogging trans fats when alternative baking methods exist. I get that cookies aren’t supposed to be healthy… but why keep the trans fats? Even Oreos got rid of trans fats in their cookies.
Seriously, you won’t miss the trans fats in these healthy girl scout cookies.
They are just really good.
Healthy Girl Scout Cookie Tagalongs
Ingredients :
1 cup almond flour – Or make your own by finely grinding slivered almonds in a vitamix, blender, or coffee grinder
1/8 tsp + 1/16 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp pure maple syrup or honey OR stevia to taste
1 1/2 tbsp veg or melted coconut oil
For stevia version: 1 tbsp milk of choice, added with the liquid ingredients. For maple syrup version: up to 2 level teaspoons milk of choice or extra oil, only as needed
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
about 20 tsp peanut butter or allergy-friendly sub
1/2 cup chocolate chips, or my healthy chocolate sauce
Method :
Combine all liquid ingredients (except milk of choice if using maple syrup version, and not including peanut butter). In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (except pb and chocolate chips) and stir very well. Now mix wet into dry and keep stirring, breaking up clumps as you mix—it may seem dry at first, and you can add the extra 2 tsp milk or oil (I did add this when I made the maple syrup version), but do not add any more liquid than the recipe calls for. It will eventually form something that can either be squished into a ball with your hands or put into a plastic bag and smushed from inside the bag (the less-messy option). Roll out dough to cut-out-cookie width, either between sheets of parchment paper or from inside the bag, then cut with a circle cutter or the rim of a small glass. Freeze dough at least 20 minutes before cooking 10-13 minutes (depending on desired crispiness) at 325 F on a greased cookie sheet. Let cool another 10 minutes before even attempting to remove cookies from the sheet. They should firm up nicely. For troubleshooting, see nutrition link below.
Spread a little under 1 tsp of the nut butter on each cookie and place them on a wire rack over a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Melt the chocolate (very carefully and slowly, as chocolate burns fast), then spread chocolate over the cookie tops (or use two spoons to dip the cookies). Chill cookies for a few minutes so chocolate hardens. (If using the coconut coating, as opposed to chocolate chips, cookies should be stored in the fridge due to the low melting point of coconut oil.)