Homemade Tag Alongs

I found a recipe on Pinterest that I just knew I had to make on my own! It was for homemade tag along Girl Scout cookies!!! Who doesn't love to devour a whole box of Girl Scout cookies in one setting? Oh wait, only I do that? Shoot, you all are missing out because a cookie coma is the best. When talking about Girl Scout cookies, people usually name Thin Mints or Tag Alongs (now renamed to Peanut Butter Patties...lame) as their favorite kind of cookie. And rightfully so because they're both the ones I'd pick but I'd choose the Tag Alongs any day over Thin Mints! Maybe it's because of my obsession with peanut butter and Reese's that they remind me of so much....good thing Jordan is equally obsessed with all things peanut butter and Reese's so I knew this recipe would be a win-win for both of us. This was our cookie project that we made yesterday! I followed the recipe from Baking Bites and tweeked it a little bit here and there....

Cookie Ingredients

1 cup butter (or 2 full sticks)
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Filling Ingredients1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Coating
12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Makes about 3 dozen

Total time: 2-3 hours

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together into a soft ball. (This was about the time I was wishing I had a KitchenAid mixer...I'm hoping that we get one for a wedding gift!)

3. Take a tablespoon full of dough and flatten it into a disc about 1/4-inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Cookies will not spread too much, so you can really squeeze them in more than you would for chocolate chip cookies. Or you could roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter but that seemed more time consuming to me...

4. Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, until bottoms and the edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.

5. While cookies are baking, I made the peanut butter filling. In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla then set aside. 

6. Immediately after removing cookies from the oven, use measuring spoon or a small spoon to make a depression in the center of each cookie

7. Cool for a 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet then I transferred the cookies from the sheet right to the counter since they were on the parchment paper.

8. Once the cookies are cooled, heat up the peanut butter filling in the microwave in 15-20 second intervals until it is really smooth and creamy. It should be easy to work with. Carefully spoon the filling to into the depression on the cookie and across the top of them.

Mmmm! So much peanut butter!
I didn't make them as thin or pretty as the real Tag Alongs
but there's nothing wrong with some extra peanut butter!

9. Chill cookies with filling for 20-30 minutes, or until the peanut butter is firm. (At this point, I stopped and made dinner and then came back to the cookies...)

10. To melt the chocolate, I didn't want to use the microwave because I knew I would have to keep reheating it repeatedly to coat all of the cookies. So I made a make shift double boiler (after burning and ruining an entire bag of chocolate chips first. Good thing I bought 2 just in case!) I filled the pot about 2 inches with water and had the oven set on medium-high heat. Pour the chocolate chips into a heat-resistant bowl that can sit on top of the pot and make a secure seal or as secure as possible to keep the steam in, which is what melts the chocolate.

Some of the steam got out but overall, it had a
tight enough seal to keep the chocolate melted.

11. This part got messy so that's your fair warning! Dip the chilled cookies into the chocolate....there's really no easy/smooth way to do this. I tried it with a spoon, fork and tongs and ultimately, just by carefully using my fingers to hold the cookie and coat it worked the best. Let the excess chocolate drip off then place on parchment paper on baking sheet to cool. Once the baking sheet was full, I put them back in the fridge to chill and harden. 

12. Once they are chilled and hardened, pour yourself a nice big glass of milk and enjoy! And accept all compliments from a very satisfied fiance who 100% approved and also devoured some right away!

Go Cubs Go!
The Perfect Combination!

13. Store in fridge to keep chilled so chocolate coating doesn't melt. I stacked them and used parchment paper between so they didn't get stuck to each other. These were easier to make than I thought they would be and well worth the time! Now we can have Tag Along year round...sell your heart out Girl Scout but don't come knocking around here anymore! Oh who am I kidding, I'll still buy some!