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.
Trending recipe: Snowball Cookies (4 ingredients)
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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Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I was so Giddy this morning when i saw the post come through my email on this! Is there another flour that can be subsituted for the almond flour? I have a tree nut allergy, thank goodness not a peanut allergy!
Sorry, I haven’t tried.
Yummy, those look good!
I must admit, I had a samoa cookie last Saturday. It was a little treat to myself, but it didn’t taste the same as they used to. They weren’t as good as they used to make them..very dry and lacking flavor. 🙁
Your recipe looks great!! 🙂
I really want to have your recipe for thin mints! Those are one of my favorite things ever!
Yes! Please share the Thin Mint recipe (and the other GS cookie recipes)!
These look amazing! and I’ve had a craving for some tagalongs or samoas lately! 🙂 if I make these, how long will they stay good?
Mine lasted a few days in a glass container.
Former Girl Scout leader checking in here. A few years ago, the cookies were reformulated to eliminate trans fats. A few still have less than 0.5% that can legally be labelled “zero trans fat” while many are completely trans fat free.
As far as who gets the money, the troop receives some (and it varies based on whether or not the troops choose to receive incentive prizes or not), the Council receives a lot, and the cookie baker usually receives less than $1 per box. The Council keeps up the camp properties allowing the girls to camp for nearly free. Many properties have to maintain swimming pools, cabins, tents, archery equipment, kayaks, and may even have horses to feed so that girls can have some pretty amazing experiences. The Council also put on events that are highly subsidized so that girls of all socioeconomic levels can have quality and varied experiences. Cookie sales are absolutely vital to this!
That said, it’s only once a year for about 3 weeks of booths. It’s so much better to politely say, “No thanks, not now!” to the girls who don’t understand dietary needs, politics, or the economy. (You wouldn’t believe how rude people can be to children!) If you want to help the GS organization but do not want the cookies, buy a box for our troops. If you give a donation to the troop that is there, they can keep 100% of it to use for the troop (no girl can keep any proceeds of her cookie sales). Hope this helps!
Meanwhile, for the other 49 weeks of the year or if the offered cookies don’t meet your dietary needs, we need Katie’s recipes to replicate that great taste. 🙂
Unfortunately, I think the labels are misleading… They are allowed to say no trans fat per serving, but it adds up if you eat more than one serving (and who doesn’t? ;)). I would love to see them take out the partially-hydrogenated oils from the cookies.
I agree with you completely about supporting the girls. They don’t personally make the cookies, so why on earth would someone lecture them or yell at them? And yet I’ve heard that this really does happen.
MMmmmm… a delicious version of GS cookie. And I love the idea of donating to the troops!
Oh yum! These look so good! I’m hoping you post the others you made too….will have to make some! 🙂
Those look delicious! I’m drooling over here 🙂
Believe it or not, I’ve never had tagalongs. They sound delicious! I normally get the shortbread cookies. I know, boring, but they are my favorite 🙂
I’ve never tried a girl scout cookie in my life! I feel like the only person that hasn’t!
I used to have this weird fear of eating things people sold as a kid, so I’m guessing that’s why haha. Halloween was not the best of times for me.
EEEK! I’m so excited about these!! and how perfectly serendipitous. I was just eating a couple of the real tagalongs last night thinking how horrible they are for me and the kids, wondering how I could make them myself. Then, this morning I pop on here to discover that you recreated my guilty little treat of last night. Lovely. The boys will be very happy when I unveil these to them 🙂
I am so happy about this post. So so happy.
It is sad they encourage girls to sell cookies with bad stuff in them. Too bad Samoas are so damn good tasting. I wonder if the Girl Scout cookie company is upset that you’re advertising a way people could make cookies at home for less money and less trans crap
I cannot wait to make these! Thank you for this recipe. My daughter is a Girl Scout but I don’t eat gluten or dairy and I have had a hard time cookies around my house.
Yay! Girl Scout cookies always did me wrong, looking forward to these:). My hubby’s favorite is thin mints :). Cannot wait for that recipe and make those for him!!! He can buy and enjoy and I’m always jealous. Not any more 🙂