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It’s officially Girl Scout Cookie season around here, and all of the sudden I find myself craving my childhood favorites, like Thin Mints and Tagalongs (also known as Peanut Butter Patties). I’ve already satisfied my craving for Thin Mints with my Peppermint Fudge Bars, a recipe found in my cookbook, so today I want to focus on my other favorite– Tagalongs.
If you’re not familiar with Tagalongs, they feature a crisp shortbread-like cookie topped with a layer of creamy peanut butter, and then the whole thing is covered in chocolate. It’s basically a chocolate-covered peanut butter cup with a crunchy cookie added in the middle. In other words, perfection.
When I started working with grain-free baking a few years ago, I thought it was nearly impossible to create a “crispy” cookie using almond flour, but that was before I discovered arrowroot starch. I still don’t work with starches too often and try to use them sparingly, but in this case just a little bit of starch creates a cookie with the perfect crunchy texture for a knock-off Tagalong. Topped with peanut butter (or almond butter or sunflower butter, if you prefer) and a coating of dark chocolate, I don’t miss the traditional Girl Scout cookies one bit.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we won’t still support my nieces’ Girl Scout troops year… I just think my version tastes better. I hope you enjoy it, too!
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Gluten-free Tagalong Cookies
Makes 12 cookies
Ingredients:
For the cookies
1 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons arrowroot or tapioca starch
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter*
Pinch of fine sea salt
Peanut Butter Layer
1/4 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
Pinch of salt
Dark Chocolate Coating
1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used 70% dark chocolate)
1 teaspoon coconut oil or butter*
*This recipe is vegan if you use coconut oil, however the coconut oil does impart a slight coconut flavor to the final cookie. If you don’t need a vegan recipe, real butter also works well without adding the coconut flavor.
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To prepare the cookies, combine all of the cookie ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to create a sticky, uniform dough. Use a heaping teaspoon to scoop the dough into 12 mounds onto the lined baking sheet, then use your fingers to shape the dough into 2-inch circles about 1/4-inch thick. (You can get your hands wet to help prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.) Press your thumb into the center of each circle to create a well for the peanut butter. Bake the cookies at 300F until the edges are lightly golden, about 18 minutes, then set aside to cool completely while you prepare the peanut butter layer.
To prepare the peanut butter filling, simply stir together the peanut butter, maple syrup, and salt until smooth. Drop a teaspoon of the mixture onto each cooled cookie, and then use your fingers or a spatula to spread the peanut butter over the top of the cookie. Place the peanut butter topped cookies in the freezer to set while you prepare the chocolate topping.
To prepare the dark chocolate coating, simply melt together the dark chocolate chips and coconut oil or butter in a double boiler. (I use an oven-safe bowl that fits over a small sauce pot filled with about an inch of boiling water.) Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove the cookies from the freezer and spoon the melted chocolate over the top of each cookie, making sure to coat the sides.
Once all of the cookies are coated, place them back in the freezer to set until the chocolate is firm. Serve immediately, or keep them chilled in the fridge until ready to serve. (The chocolate may melt at room temperature if your room is too warm. Since it’s currently winter, my kitchen has been cool enough lately to store them at room temperature without them melting, and I do prefer the texture of the shortbread cookie at room temperature when it’s possible.)
Note: If you’d like to coat the bottoms of the cookies in chocolate, simply remove them from the freezer once the chocolate tops have set, flip them over, and spoon more chocolate over the bottom. Place in the freezer to set the bottoms, and then serve. My husband and I both preferred the batch of cookies I made without the chocolate bottoms, so I recommend skipping that extra work!
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup almond meal
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot or tapioca starch
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter*
- Pinch of fine sea salt
Peanut Butter Layer
- 1/4 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)
- 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
- Pinch of salt
Dark Chocolate Coating
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used 70% dark chocolate)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil or butter*
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To prepare the cookies, combine all of the cookie ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to create a sticky, uniform dough. Use a heaping teaspoon to scoop the dough into 12 mounds onto the lined baking sheet, then use your fingers to shape the dough into 2-inch circles about 1/4-inch thick. (You can get your hands wet to help prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.) Press your thumb into the center of each circle to create a well for the peanut butter. Bake the cookies at 300F until the edges are lightly golden, about 18 minutes, then set aside to cool completely while you prepare the peanut butter layer.
- To prepare the peanut butter filling, simply stir together the peanut butter, maple syrup, and salt until smooth. Drop a teaspoon of the mixture onto each cooled cookie, and then use your fingers or a spatula to spread the peanut butter over the top of the cookie. Place the peanut butter topped cookies in the freezer to set while you prepare the chocolate topping.
- To prepare the dark chocolate coating, simply melt together the dark chocolate chips and coconut oil or butter in a double boiler. (I use an oven-safe bowl that fits over a small sauce pot filled with about an inch of boiling water.) Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove the cookies from the freezer and spoon the melted chocolate over the top of each cookie, making sure to coat the sides. Once all of the cookies are coated, place them back in the freezer to set until the chocolate is firm. Serve immediately, or keep them chilled in the fridge until ready to serve. (The chocolate may melt at room temperature if your room is too warm. Since it's currently winter, my kitchen has been cool enough lately to store them at room temperature without them melting, and I do prefer the texture of the shortbread cookie at room temperature when it's possible.)
Notes
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 182, Fat: 14g, Carbohydrates: 13g, Fiber: 2g, Protein: 4g
Substitutions:
I think it’s fair to say that this recipe will work with any other nut butter you like, such as almond or sunflower butter, but I haven’t experimented with any other flours to make the cookies nut-free. Coconut flour does not make a good substitute in almond flour baking, but perhaps ground sunflower seeds could work? As always, please leave a comment below letting us know what has worked or not for you, so we can all benefit from your experience.
Happy cookie eating!
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Reader Feedback: Do you have a favorite Girl Scout Cookie? Austin’s favorites are the Peanut Butter Sandwiches (I don’t get it) and the Samoas– which I agree, are delicious.
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I live your recipes and this one looks amazing too! Thanks so much for another egg-free treat!
Would you please add a Pinterest Pin button on your recipes for easy saving and sharing?!!
Thanks!
If you hover your mouse over any of my pictures, a Pinterest button should appear for easy pinning. 🙂
I ran out of girl scout cookies so I made these. I used butter in place of coconut oil and almond butter instead of peanut. They were sooooo good.
I’m so glad to hear that! 🙂
Girl Scout cookies are a major addiction- I can recall sitting down for an “ahhhhhhhh…I’m home at last for the night and want a treat after dinner” moment, intending to eat a serving size of these gems and consuming practically the entire box! Scandalous! Can’t wait to make these!:) And speaking of portion control, could you start to include servings and nutritional info/calories? It would be so helpful- for some of us, being healthy is not enough, we really need to get a heads-up or basic idea of nutritional info and serving sizes…thanks!?
My new site design will include nutrition information in a hidden pop-up below the recipe. I’ve been informed by many of my readers that they can’t visit my site if the nutritional information is displayed because it’s too triggering for eating disorders. So, hopefully the new design will help everyone– but it’s still a couple months away from being ready to go!
These are the best copy-cat I’ve tried, I did use non-gmo cornstarch in place of the tapioca and Amish butter in place of coconut oil. I am giving up the coconut oil after a few bad moldy batches and feeling sick the next day plus my heart was starting to ache so I am giving that pricey ingredient up, hopefully a lot of your recipes taste as good with butter instead.
I made these yesterday and grudgingly shared with some coworkers today. Everyone loves them. My husband didn’t want me to share. Thanks for another great recipe!
For those who may not have these ingredients, I made these with regular all purpose flour and ground flax meal about half and half, as well as cornstarch in place of tapioca or arrowroot. The dough was a bit dry so I added milk slowly until it was moldable. I also added some vanilla to the cookies as I love vanilla. The cookies turned out perfectly crisp without being dry and the finished product is marvelous. Thank you!!!
I really wish you could convince the Girl Scouts to make these cookies, (your much healthier spin and no doubt tastier) and sell them instead!! These look absolutely fabulous. My favorite!
True story. We have about 8 girls who go to my church who sell Girl Scout cookies and they wear the shirts that say “See what a Cookie can do” and I’m thinking to myself….exactly….these girls are all about 30-50 pounds overweight many of them actually look pregnant their bellys are so big and it’s so sad! I wish the Girl Scouts would train a bit more in nutrition although I think they are a wonderful organization.
But if they made these homemade and even charged a bit more, I’m game! As it is, we buy their cookies and throw them right in the garbage. If you look at the ingredients in there, you wouldn’t eat them. Who would? I don’t even let husband take them to work for his co-workers because why give people such bad food?
I totally agree with you Laura, except here in the Ohio Valley it seems people can’t get enough of their conventional garbage foods, you should see my dad’s kitchen, a tower of snack cakes and mini candies and everything popular name-brand dead foods. I don’t think he’s heard of the word organic. My husband and I stick to ourselves because around here if you try to eat healthy it’s like you have two heads! As soon as I get one of these starches/powders Megan I am making these!
tagalongs and thin mints always had my heart as a kid! Knowing that I can make a healthfied version makes my what to cry tears of joy! Great recipe!
Love this – another fab recipe!! i just need to find some dark chocolate chips:)
Ahhh I just posted a healthified girl scout cookie recipe too – Thin Mints! Great minds think alike, huh? I LOVE tagalongs and I’m thrilled you made a healthy version!! 😀