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
Healthy Cookie And Bar Recipes
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love girl scout cookies and I love making healthy desserts so I cant wait to try these. I am pretty sure I have all the ingredients too!
Wow! Eager to try. Can’t wait til you share your Samoas take. Thanks & YUM.
As someone who was just put on a gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, and soy-free diet by a naturopath…Thank you. So much. I am ridiculously happy right now. 😀
Mmm, I haven’t had girl scout cookies in forever! Even since before I overhauled my diet! I live in Canada now, and while we do have Girl Guides, I’ve never seen them selling cookies. Strange, now that I think about it. I am sure they do sell cookies.
This is great! There has been an odd lack of Girl Scouts in my town and I’ve been craving their cookies. Are you going to post recipes for the other cookies you created? Samoas, Thin Mints, and Tagalongs happen to be my favorites, too!
Yes, I need to photoshoot the thin mints and test the samoas base a little more first, though.
I haven’t had a girl scout cookie in over 5 years – been GF since then.
I just made these cookies. They taste just like I remember.
I sub-ed a few things in case you’re interested: oat flour for the almond flour, I added a little honey and dried soy milk to the nut butter to make the inside a bit more like a PB ball or imitation Reeses PB cup filling. My cookies aren’t as beautiful as yours, but they are yummy! Thank you, thank you.
I love your substitution ideas. Thanks for trying the cookies!
Hi Katie,
Looks yummy!
Just a question about the measurement. I have Bob’s Redmill almond flour, which is 28g for 1/4 cup. A full cup would be 112g, but your recipe calls for 75g of flour. Which amount should I include — a full cup or 75g, which would actually be less than 3/4 cup?
Thanks!
If you do have a food scale, I would go with the grams. Cup measurement grams can be off (or can differ) depending on whether you pack the cup or not. Also, not all measuring spoons/cups are exactly the same; some are off! That’s one of the reasons I highly recommend anyone who is into baking invest in a food scale. 🙂
If you’re worried about supporting gays, don’t donate cookies to the troops! The military is filled with queer women and men. I am one.
Hi Katie,
I’m not sure if you mistook someone else’s comment on this post as my own. I have absolutely no problem supporting gays.
Oh! Ok good, high five.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with supporting the troops, even if you don’t support gays. Gay or not, they do a tremendous service to keep our liberty, and as someone who doesn’t support gays, I thank every soldier, regardless of orientation for it. We have THE BEST military. I would give ’em some cookies in a heartbeat, no matter who they are.
Katie. I always get frustrated when i find great looking stuff I want to try and bake, and then I read the directions and they say I have to put things in the freezer, which leaves me crestfallen. I live in a country where the common freezer has about enough room for a frozen pizza and a few ice cubes and not much more. Can I make these without the freezing step? Would they work if I left them overnight in the regular refridgerator?
As long as you don’t use the coconut-oil chocolate, you can easily just “set” the chocolate in the fridge.
I agree! I had a hard time encouraging my girls to sell something I didn’t want them to eat! Love this healthier version! (I’m also baffled by why so many Easy Bake Oven mixes are full of trans fat…yikes!)
I can never get my desserts to turn out as beautifully as yours, PLEASE start a delivery business – chocolate covered katie desserts, order-able throughout the US! Pretty please? I would pay A LOT for your treats!
Haha I might eat them all before they could be delivered ;).
Mmmm! I buy Girl Scout cookies, mostly Thin Mints and Tagalongs! These look super good.
I’m fairly certain that no matter what food choices I make for the rest of my life, Thin Mints will be one of them 🙂 I’m excited to try this recipe, though! I was just looking over your candy recipes and getting excited because I can make several for Easter so my type 1 daughter has some “grazing” options. It’s hard to be a kid who has to count every carb when you have a sibling who can eat anything. (not that I let her just eat a ton of candy or something because I don’t).
You know, I have the world’s easiest recipe for making Thin Mints, but I don’t think it’s vegan. Did you come up with a vegan one? I might play around if you didn’t 🙂
I made these yesterday using your healthy sugar cookie recipe. YUM! They’re almost gone….
OH GOSH! MUST. MAKE. NOW! I used to be a Girl Scout, so I totally miss these! Can’t wait or the thin mint or Samoa recipe…those were my abseloute faves!
Girl Scout cookies should really be amde more healthy. It’s like 150 calories for two Samoas!!!!
These sound delicious and I’m really excited to give them a try. I noticed you said you haven’t tried substituting a non-nut flour in this recipe. So do you think coconut flour would be a safe substitute?
Thanks!
Becca