This healthy Girl Scout Cookie peanut butter Tagalongs recipe can be vegan, gluten free, sugar free, grain free, and keto friendly!
Homemade Girl Scout Cookies
It is Girl Scout Cookie season once again.
And you know what that means… Tagalongs! Thin Mints! Do Si Dos! Samoas!
Or whatever cookies they are selling nowadays.
(Mango Cremes? What??)
Also try these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Healthy peanut butter Tagalongs
I will stick with the classic.
Today’s recipe is for healthy homemade Tagalongs, those thick peanut butter patties with a buttery shortbread crust and smooth chocolate coating.
Until they come out with healthy Girl Scout Cookies (or at least vegan Girl Scout Cookie Tagalongs) I am not letting the Girl Scouts have all the fun.
At press time in 2025, Girl Scout Peanut Butter Patties, supplied by ABC Bakers, are vegan. However Tagalongs, supplied by Little Brownie Bakers, are not. The region you live in will determine which option is available to you.
And both options contain unhealthy hydrogenated oil.
So last weekend, I set up a DIY Girl Scout Cookie factory in the kitchen.
By the end of the night, my factory successfully churned out batches of homemade healthy Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, and Tagalongs.
The best part? All of the cookies were whole grain, gluten free, trans fat free, dairy free, and egg free.
I will never understand why an institution concerned with bringing up healthy young girls continues to produce and promote cookies containing artery clogging hydrogenated oil when alternative baking methods exist.
True, cookies are not supposed to be a health food, but why keep the trans fats? Even Oreos got rid of hydrogenated oil in their cookies.
Seriously, you will not miss the trans fats in these healthy Girl Scout Cookies.
They are just really good.
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Healthy Girl Scout Cookie recipe video
Above, watch the full video showing how to make the cookies.
Ingredients
The recipe calls for peanut butter, chocolate chips, almond flour, sweetener of choice, salt, baking soda, water, and pure vanilla extract.
Peanut butter – Feel free to use either conventional or natural peanut butter.
For a peanut free alternative, almond butter, sunflower butter, or cashew butter work. Refrigerate the nut butter until ready to use, because you want it firm.
Almond flour – Fine almond flour or flourless almond meal is readily available at regular grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, Target, Whole Foods, and health food stores.
Allergic to almonds? Use this simple recipe for Vegan Sugar Cookies as the base of the cookies instead.
Chocolate – It is your choice whether to go with semi sweet, milk, oat milk, or dark chocolate chips.
Sweetener – I like unrefined pure maple syrup here. Honey, powdered sugar, and agave also work.
To create keto girl scout cookies, sweeten with stevia or powdered erythritol instead.
How to make healthy Girl Scout Cookies
The first step is to gather your ingredients. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Store the peanut butter in the refrigerator, because you want it firm, not runny.
Combine all dry ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. Stir well to evenly incorporate the baking soda and salt.
Add in the wet ingredients, minus the peanut butter. It will seem dry at first. Keep stirring for at least a minute, breaking up large clumps of dough as you go.
Smush into a large ball, or transfer the cookie dough to a large Ziploc bag and smush into a ball from inside the bag. I find this second option much less messy and easier to shape without dough sticking to your hands.
From inside the bag or between two sheets of parchment paper, use a rolling pin to thinly roll the almond cookie mixture into a rectangle with about 1/8 inch thickness.
Use a cookie cutter or the rim of a small glass to cut circles or shapes of choice.
Re-roll any leftover dough scraps so none are wasted.
Place the raw cookie cut outs on a greased baking sheet or silicone baking mat, and bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for twelve minutes.
Let the baked cookies cool, then transfer to a parchment lined plate. Refrigerate or freeze until cold to the touch.
Spread peanut butter on top of each cookie base, then return to the refrigerator. This step is important because it ensures the peanut butter will not melt when it touches the hot chocolate sauce in the next step.
Chocolate coating
Add the chocolate chips to a microwave safe dish or the top bowl of a double boiler.
Carefully melt the chocolate, going slowly and checking often so it does not burn. If you are new to melting chocolate, you may find it helpful to read through the thorough instructions in my recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
Once the chips are fully melted, I find that stirring in just a teaspoon of vegetable or coconut oil yields a much smoother sauce. However, this ingredient is optional.
Using a spoon or fork, lower one peanut butter topped cookie into the chocolate. Set back on the parchment lined plate, and repeat this step with all remaining cookies.
Refrigerate to set the chocolate coating, then serve and enjoy.
Store any leftover Tagalongs in a cool, dry place or in the refrigerator or freezer.
The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies and these Keto Cookies.
Healthy Girl Scout Cookie Tagalongs
Ingredients
Tagalong Cookies
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup or honey, or stevia equivalent
- 2 tsp water or oil
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or allergy friendly sub
Chocolate Coating
- 2/3 cup chocolate chips or Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
- 1 tsp oil (optional for a smoother chocolate sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 F. Chill the peanut butter in the refrigerator. Stir cookie dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then stir in wet (minus the peanut butter). It will be dry at first. Keep stirring for a minute or two, breaking up large clumps, until it resembles a cookie dough. Transfer to a large Ziploc bag and smush into a ball from inside the bag. Either still inside the bag or between two sheets of parchment paper, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick. Cut circles or shapes of choice with cookie cutters or the rim of a small glass. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate or freeze until cold to the touch. Spread peanut butter on each cookie base. Return to the refrigerator while you carefully melt the chocolate then stir in the optional oil. Use a spoon to coat the cookies in chocolate. Refrigerate to set. Enjoy your homemade healthy Girl Scout Cookies!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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Darn you Katie! Now I have to make these tonight! I am so glad I found your blog. I love how creative you are!
OMG!! Katie, first off I have only discovered your website a few weeks ago and I absolutely LOVE your recipes! So easy and best of all, clean and natural ingredients!! But I think you have seriously outdone yourself by recreating girl scout cookies! Samoas and Tagalongs are my FAVORITE!!! and now I can feel better about eating them! Thanks so much for all your amazing recipes!
Katie! These look amazing!! I love that you used almond flour.
My mom being a teacher always come home with lots of boxes from her students, but this year she just bought two boxes of Thin Mints, gave them to my brother, and that was that 🙂 My favorite is the shortbread, but with allergies and junk I can’t have them. If asked though, I would probably do the same as you. I didn’t even know that was an option!
I loved girl scout cookies growing up. But as an adult and a nutritionist I’ve come to realize how awful they are! Who needs the trans-fats and preservatives? (Plus we never have cash on us!) I’d love to support the scouts though, I was a scout for 12 years and hopefully would like to get back into it one day!
It’s a great idea about sending them to the troops; I’m sure they’d appreciate a taste of home. Thanks for the healthified Tag-a-longs! The hubby will be happy since they’re his favs! Me, I’m a Samoa type: caramel, chocolate, shortbread, coconut; what’s not to love?!
So GSC are nutritionally so awful you won’t eat them but you’ll send them to your troops?
Yummmmm! These look great! I have to make them.
I actually do buy girl scout cookies. I don’t eat vegan, and I enjoy a splurge every now and then. I bought thin mints, which were my favorite, and the Savannah smiles (my new favorite).
I am in luck with this post! Peanut Butter Patties are my favorite Girl Scout Cookie. I saw the Girl Scouts outside the market this weekend and sadly have to pass by because of their ingredients! Thank you for this!
I hope you will post a Samoa recipe soon! Thank you for your amazing recipes. I love them!
Wow! I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to these…. can’t wait for the samoas!!!!
If you think you are supporting the cute little girl who comes to you door, think again. Most of the money you spend doesn’t go to that girl’s troop, it goes to the overall Girl Scouts organization. The actual troop sees very little of the money. Unlike the Boy Scouts where the kid actually gets lots of cash personally to do whatever he wants with. You’re better off to just write a check to eh girl’s troop with a $5 donation since they’d get to keep all of that instead of just 10-15% of the box price.
This is the first year we didn’t buy a single GS cookie, mainly because of the ingredients. My wife is working on making homemade versions to give out to friends in exchange for a donation to our daughter’s troop.
http://www.godairyfree.org/news/nutrition-headlines/girl-scout-cookies-could-there-actually-be-some-dairy-free-delights
Oh, thanks for this! I feel so bad turning down all the Girl Scouts when they offer me cookies this time of year. Memphis Scouts go through LBB, so no vegan options here. I’d totally buy those vegan ones if I lived in a place that had them. But until then, I’ll have to make my own healthier ones!
Do you think rice flour would be ok to use instead? I don’t have almond to hand and want to make these noww 🙂 x
I’m currently making these now and used brown rice flour…the dough is in the freezer now so I hope they turn out okay! 🙂
Yes, please, please post a Samoa recipe… I miss those guys!!!
I would have LOVED to be in your kitchen with all those cookies coming out, yum!
Um, yum. Thank you for posting this. This might finally stop me from stealing boxes of girl scout cookies every time I walk by one of their tables. Now those kids won’t chase me all over the store crying that I took their cookies.
I hope that was just in my head.
oh my girl scout goodness. i gave up sweets for Lent but can be sure: these will be the FIRST thing I make on Easter Sunday!
I’m eating one as I type…. :)My husband just bought 3 boxes on Saturday from our neighbor while I bought two from the other neighbor girl…eek! The lemon cookies and the peanut butter chocolate one’s are actually vegan. I was surprised that the PB cookie one was not. This recipe looks fantastic.