For the whole month of February and most of March, I tried to track down those darn Girl Scouts. I must say, when I was a Girl Scout, I worked hard pushing cookies. This cookie pusher was always on a mission: selling in front of grocery stores, walking door-to-door to every house in the neighborhood, calling all my relatives and anyone I knew. I actually kind of hated cookie season because of this. But I genuinely looked forward to the day the tables would be turned. What the hell.. I'm still waiting. I swear, times have changed. I'm not only disappointed but sadly cookieless, as well. Worst feeling ever.
Anyway, screw it. I made my own Girl Scout cookies-- Homemade Tagalongs. I stumbled upon a blog that successfully replicated these treasures. Though With Sprinkles on Top got the recipe elsewhere, I love her pictures. They are so gorgeous I didn't even feel compelled to photoblog my cookie-making journey for you.
These take some time but, for me, not nearly as much as trying to track down one freakin box to buy. Seriously, Girl Scouts? Look what you made me do. Please also note, I purposely picked the fattiest cookie on the menu to replicate, because no scouts (and cookies) in sight made me slightly depressed.
Homemade Tagalongs
Recipe by We Are Not Martha
Yields: a lot of scrumptious cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate (or whatever chocolate you want)
DIRECTIONS
1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and white granulated sugar together until fluffy and even. Scrape down the bowl and beat again to make sure butter and sugar are incorporated well. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Then add this dry mixture to wet mixture on the lowest speed.
3. On a large piece of parchment paper, shape dough into a cylinder (diameter of 2-3 inches). Wrap in the parchment paper and freeze for at least 25 minutes.
4. Slice the chilled dough into 1/8 inch disks. Place as many as you can fit on parchment-lined baking sheet, because they won't spread. You can cut as little or as much as you like, but the filling and chocolate proportions in the recipe are for about 30 cookies. Must make more peanut butter filling and melt more chocolate to accommodate the whole cylinder of dough. Wrap any dough not used in plastic wrap and freeze for later use.
5. Bake cookies in preheated 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake. You are not looking for any sign of browning. Definitely should not be over 10 minutes. The cookies might look somewhat soft but will firm up further as they cool.
6. While the cookies are cooling on a wire rack, mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar.
7. Place disks of the peanut butter mixture on top of the cooled cookies. You don't need to press peanut butter filling to the very edge of the cookies. It's best to leave a bit of room.
8. Melt chocolate chips over a double broiler-- or microwave (heating in 30 second intervals and stirring well until all the chocolate is smooth and even.
9. Dip cookies in chocolate and coat well. Place back onto parchment lined baking sheet to set. Pop in the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to speed up chocolate re-hardening.
10. Store leftovers in an airtight container.
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