It’s been a tough couple months for me since Girl Scout Cookie season ended, and it’ll be a long eight months until those clever sales-children start distributing again. In the meantime, one of the best ways to get your fix is to make dupes of your favorite Girl Scout Cookies at home. I’ve dabbled in the Thin Mint and Caramel deLite territory already, but now it’s time to unveil the recipe for my favorite peanut butter cookie of the bunch: Do-Si-Dos.
Tagalongs get a lot of love from the peanut butter crowd—and they deserve it (I’ll test out a copycat recipe of those soon enough)—but if quantity eaten is an indicator, then Do-Si-Dos are my pick. It’s a crisp, sweet, slightly oaty peanut butter sandwich cookie with a hint of salt: Simple, like a PB cookie should be, but with a concentrated nutty center that only sandwich cookies can provide.
The Do-Si-Do is relatively simple to recreate, which is more than I can say for the multi-component Caramel deLite or chocolate enrobed Thin Mint. Both the cookie and peanut butter filling are straightforward, no tricks or fancy skills necessary. The only picky thing I recommend is using two different peanut butters. A chunky peanut butter (like Crazy Richard's) is best for the cookie dough, providing better texture and a more robust, nutty flavor, while you want a smooth peanut butter for the filling. I choose a sweetened, emulsified peanut butter (Skippy, in this case) for the filling because it perfectly replicates the almost peanut candy flavor of a Do-Si-Do.
This recipe uses possibly the most used American cookie method: creaming. Stir the softened butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until well combined. Stir in the chunky peanut butter, egg, vanilla extract, and salt until combined. In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, and oats together. Pour the dry mixture into the butter mixture and stir until combined.
The dough will be thick but soft. If it’s too warm in your kitchen, you might want to chill the dough for 20 minutes to make rolling easier. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out half of the cookie dough to a ¼-inch thickness. Using a small circular cookie cutter about 1 inch in diameter, cut out as many rounds as you can and put them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Put the pan in the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes. Repeat this with the rest of the dough.
Do-Si-Dos have a slightly patterned surface and a small hole in the center, so you can replicate this by pricking the top with a fork and using the tines to make a criss-cross, or skip the fuss out and don’t do anything at all. Either way, bake the cookies at 350°F for 10 to 13 minutes, or until they’ve lightly browned on top. Cool them on the pan for 5 minutes, and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
In a small bowl, mix smooth peanut butter with powdered sugar. The combination will be like a soft Play-Doh. Flip over half of the cookies and put teaspoon-sized balls of the filling in the center. Top the filling with the other cookies and gently press down to force the filling out to the edges.
Now the hardest part: Wait until tomorrow to eat them. I’m kidding—no human on earth could resist. But like any sandwich cookie, giving them a day in an airtight container allows the texture of the cookies to soften slightly, and the filling to firm up. As a solution, eat some today, and store the rest for tomorrow.
Ingredients:
For the cookies:
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
½ cup chunky peanut butter
1 egg, room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt for salted peanut butter (or ½ teaspoon for unsalted)
1 ⅓ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup rolled oats
For the filling:
½ cup smooth peanut butter
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1. Mix the butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the chunky peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and salt. Stir until well combined.
2. In a separate smaller bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, and oats together. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.
3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s a ¼-inch thick. Cut 1-inch circles out of the dough and put them on a parchment lined sheet tray. Press a pattern into the cookies now, if you choose to. Chill the rounds in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F.
4. Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes or until evenly browned. Cool the cookies on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely.
5. To make the filling, stir the smooth peanut butter with the powdered sugar, it will be a thick paste. Flip over half of the cookies and add a teaspoon-sized ball of the filling to each of them. Top the filling with the other cookies and gently press until the filling reaches the edges of the cookie sandwich.
