Girl Scout-Style Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

A little ways back I did my take on doing a homemade version of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. Because, as we know, Girl Scouts are slackers and do not sell cookies year-round. This is not acceptable and they must address this but until they do, here’s a way to make them yourselves.

You won’t get the satisfaction of buying from the daughters of all the people you work with, or the girls on the street corner with their table set up. But you WILL have off-season peanut butter sandwich cookies and until the Girl Scouts start realizing that the calendar is 12 MONTHS, not six, these are a fantastic alternative.

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

· ¾ cup flour

· 1 cup rolled oats (you can just use good old fashioned Quaker Oats here)

· ½ t baking soda

· ½ t baking powder

· ½ t salt

· 5 T butter, softened to room temperature

· ¾ cup dark brown sugar

· ¼ cup sugar

· 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

· 1 egg, brought to room temperature

· 2 t vanilla

Filling

· 1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

· 1 T plus 1 1/2t honey

· 1/2 t vanilla

· ¼ cup plus 4 T powdered sugar

Directions

We’ll make the cookies first. (Well, I will – you can do whatever the hell you want.) But if you’re following me, pour the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Whisk them all together until they’re well combined, then put that to the side.

In a separate bowl put the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat that with a hand mixer until well blended and the mixture is smooth – probably a couple minutes. Add in the peanut butter, egg and vanilla and beat again until everything is well combined. This won’t take as long – maybe a minute.

Add the dry ingredients from the first bowl into this bowl and mix again until well combined. Probably another couple minutes, if that.

Place the dough in balls on a cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Take the bottom of a glass and press down to flatten each ball slightly. Tip – since you’re making sandwich cookies you’re going to want to make each cookie as close to the same size as possible so that when you sandwich them together…it works.

Bake at 375 for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges start to get a nice golden brown.

Ok, a couple got a little overcooked but not so much that they were ruined….trust me, they were delicious!

After you take them out of the oven, let the cookies set for a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

After the cookies have cooled you can make the filling, and it’s really easy. Pour the four ingredients – peanut butter, honey, vanilla and powdered sugar and beat them with a hand mixer on low until they’re well combined and the mixture is smooth.

Put the filling into a Ziploc bag and snip off the end of it to make it into a piping bag (or, you know, you could use an actual piping bag).