Holy Virginian Peanuts Batman!
Ok... maybe that sounded better in my head than it
actually looks on paper, but man do I love myself some peanuts and wouldn't ya
know if Virginia, my home state, is known for peanuts. MacLeod on the other
hand, though he loves peanuts like no other is always wary because his nephew
has a deathly peanut allergy. So we tend to keep peanuts close to the cuff, not
something we actually keep in the pantry all too often. But when you talk Girl
Scout Cookies, you got to talk about Tagalongs.
I knew going into it that with this cookie the challenge
was going to be the "shortbread" or "butter" cookie part of
it. Additionally I knew that it was going to be the base for my final cookie as
well, the Samoa, so I had to get it right. My friends, there are literally
hundreds of recipes for these "shortbread" cookies on the interwebs
out there and I tried TWELVE of them. I kid you not, I tried TWELVE. What was
that you ask? Did the first few turn out like rocks? Indeed they did. Were some
of them not even edible? Nope they certainly were not. Oh yes, indeed the
gluten-free flours are expensive all get out! UGH! But I was on a mission I
needed to get these darn cookies right. To my surprise I did manage to come up
with one batch of cookies that I have slotted into my cookie recipe bank as
"Danish 'butter' Cookies"... you know those ones that come in those
blue tins with the coarse sugar on them?? OH so GOOD! Yes, I made some that
taste just like that, but not shortbread.
Anyway, thirteenth time's a charm and I finally got my crumbly delicious shortbread
cookie that I wanted. And they were ah-mazing, biting into them you would never
be able to tell that these cookies were absent of any butter, its craziness!
From there it was all about chilling, cutting and assembly.
Shortbread Cookie:
1/2 C Spectrum Shortening
1 1/4 C Gluten-free Flour Blend
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Peanut Butter Filling:
2 C Natural Creamy Peanut Butter
3/4 C confectioners sugar (this is to thicken and
sweeten, if you want to forgo the sweetener all together)
Glaze:
10 oz. Casein-free Chocolate chips
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend together flour, baking powder and salt in a
medium sized bowl.
3. In a stand mixer add shortening and sugar and blend on
medium-high until creamy. Add extract and egg.
4. 1/2 C at a time, add flour mixture to mixer and blend
after addition until all the flour has been added. The dough will begin to lump
together which is what you want to happen.
5. Turn the dough back into the medium sized bowl and
press it together and work it with your hands a bit just to get a uniform ball.
It may be a little sticky, that is fine when it is chilled it will come
together.
6. Place the ball of dough in the bowl and refrigerate
for at least 2 hours, even over night is fine.
7. Cut two pieces of parchment paper, place one on your
work space. Cut the dough in quarters(its easiest to work with a portion of the
dough at one time)and flatten the dough just slightly and press the second
piece of parchment on top of it.
8. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4"
thick. I actually put a ruler to it to measure this because I wanted to get a
really nice thickness for the shortbread. A thin shortbread is too crisp. Try
your hardest to keep a uniform thickness in the dough.
9. With a cutter (1.5" round) cut round circles and
place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
10. Bake for 10-12 mins. at 350 degrees. As soon as you
pull the cookies out of the oven with a spoon or ladle (as I used) push a small
indentation into the cookie to create a little more of a space for your peanut
butter filling.
11. While the cookies are cooling, combine the peanut
butter and sugar and blend vigorously, you can do it in a stand mixer, but by
fork does just fine, just be sure to blend it well enough to get all the lumps
out and get a smooth consistency. When you first add the sugar it will lump
together but as you continue to break it back up and mix it will thin back out
and become smooth again. 
12. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip (a
Ateco 802 or similar) OR you can use a freezer bag with the corner cut off with
an ok result as well. (the piping bag is just a little neater and cleaner, but
improvisation works and makes for a budget friendly kitchen!) With bag filled,
hold bag upright over cookies, and squeeze enough peanut butter to spread to
the edge of the cookie. With on offset spatula or knife, spread the peanut butter to the edge of the cookie. If you don't like how the shape of the peanut butter
looks (because that is what the shape is going to look like after they are
chocolate coated) you can reshape a little after they are refrigerated). 
13. Repeat with each cookie and place completed sheet of
peanut buttered cookies in freezer (the freezer, kids, is a must. When these
peanut butter cookies get dipped in the hot chocolate they NEED to be cold, do
not skip this step) for at least 30 minutes.
14. Towards the end of the chilling, melt your coating
chocolate at 30 second intervals being careful not to burn the chocolate.
15. If you want to reshape any peanut butter mounts, do
so now or forever hold your peace. I am a perfectionist and can't help but
reshape them.
Before the After the Chilling Chilling
(and
reshaping!)
16. When the cookies have chilled, using a fork place the
cookies in the chocolate and immerse them in the chocolate then with the top of
the cookie facing up, scoop the fork under the cookie and gently tap the
cookie's side at the edge of the bowl to let any extra chocolate drip off.
17. Place cookies onto a parchment lines cookie sheet to
set. Once all the cookies are on the sheet, refrigerate to help set the
chocolate.
18. (Again.. unnecessary step, but I do it for looks)If
you want the looks to look nice, you can simply take a paring knife to the edge to cut off any excess
chocolate that puddle when you placed them after the chocolate dredge. But it's
up to you, the taste great just the same!
19. Add a moderate amount of milk... or in my case a
dairy-free substitute and enjoy!
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