by Caitlin Saniga
I come from a family of Girl Scouts. I was a Scout until the 7th grade, and I participated in the annual fundraiser — selling cookies. Do-si-dos, the crispy peanut butter cookie sandwiches with peanut butter cream in the middle, were among my favorites. My sister was a Scout, too. So were Mom, my only female cousin, my aunts and Grandma Janis, who remained active as a troop leader until her mid-60s. Girl Scouts taught me little bits about setting goals, trying new things, and reaching out to others — along with building skills for cooking, camping, cleaning, sewing, acting, singing, babysitting, gardening, recycling and a bunch of other things. As corny as it sounds, I know for a fact that being involved with the organization helped make me a better person. Happy 100th birthday, Girl Scouts of the USA!
For cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 cup quick cooking oats
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For filling:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Use your palm to flatten the balls of dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the egg, and beat well.
Why would you cut out holes in the cookies? So the frosting can seep through, just like the Girl Scout classic!
In another mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and mix the ingredients together until well combined.
If you have a cookie scoop, use it to make uniform cookie dough balls. (if you don’t, do your best to roll uniform balls about 3/4-inch in diameter.
Try to pair together cookies of roughly the same size and shape.
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, pressing each mound down with the palm of your hand to make 1/4 inch thick disks.
Bake for 6 minutes. Remove the half-cooked cookies from the oven, and use a straw to punch a whole in the center of each cookie. Discard the scraps. Return the cookie sheet to the oven, and cook for an additional 4 minutes, or until the cookies are light brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack.
To make the filling: Cream the butter, confectioner’s sugar, peanut butter and cream together until well combined and somewhat fluffy.
For everything you ever wanted to know about Girl Scouts and the cookies sold by the organization, visit its website.
Transfer the filling to a zip-top bag (cutting off one of the corners to make a makeshift pastry bag). Squeeze about 1 tablespoon of filling onto the undersides of half the cookies. Top each frosted cookie with the other cookies (undersides facing the frosting) to make the cookie sandwiches.
Makes about 25 cookie sandwiches.
Recipe made with minor adaptions from: Savory Sweet Life
So hungry I could blog 