Do Si Dos Peanut Butter Cookies (Copycat Girl Scout Cookies!)

Love peanut butter cookies? You'll love these copycat cookies of the famous Girl Scout Do Si Dos cookies! They're tiny bite sized peaut butter and oatmeal cookies with a delicious peanut butter filling. I made so many batches of these to get them juuuuust right down to the look and size of them. If you've always wanted to try Girl Scout Cookies, give these a go. These are a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

Do Si Dos (which I find impossible to type correctly first go) are one of the many Girl Scout Cookies available. There's a permanent selection and then there's a seasonal collection. Girl Scout Cookies are usually sold at a certain time of the year, usually the beginning of the year. The Girl Scouts usually set up a table outside grocery stores and hardware stores and sell them for around $5USD a box as a way to raise funds. Ivy got them shipped over and kindly gave me a few boxes to try.

Although Samoas are probably the most popular Girl Scout Cookie I loved the Do Si Dos the most because I love the flavour of peanut butter and the texture of oatmeal cookies. They are a crunchy cookie but chewy cookie lover Ivy eats her Do Si Dos by leaving them on the counter for a few hours to soften up and then become chewy and softer. I love how crisp they are but I also knew that I wanted to eat them year round.

Over a period of 2 days I made lots of batches because Bega asked me to develop a recipe for their Peanut Butter Masters Challenge to share on Instagram (see my Instagram for more details).

To make the perfect Do Si Do Girl Scout Copycat Cookie:

1- Use white sugar, not brown sugar (although brown sugar tastes better)

2- Use a 3cm/1.2inch round cutter to cut these to a consistent shape, don't roll it and press it out as some recipes tell you to do. They'll be too big.

3- Has a small piece of toasted peanut in the centre.

4- Bake at 160C/320F so that it is light golden but not dark golden or overly browned

5- Processing the oatmeal a little makes these cookies easier to cut out

6- Reroll the cookie dough, it rerolls like a dream

7- Use a combination of copha and butter. Do Si Dos actually don't contain butter (they use soybean and palm oil) but I couldn't forego on the butter taste. If you don't have copha, use a vegetable fat.

9 - Do Si Dos do not contain eggs but I used an egg to bind it together. Omitting the egg makes them very brittle.

10- Lastly I'd recommend making a batch of these using brown sugar. It won't look exactly like a Do Si Do (it will be darker) but the flavour is better.

240 cookies later I finally nailed the Girl Scout Cookie Do Si Do!!

I already promised some to Ivy and Valentina (Nina wasn't accepting any sweets as she was on a diet). I also put it up on my Instagram stories and a few readers contacted me telling me that they'd be happy to accept the copycat Do Si Dos. Some even offered to trade me things like sourdough starter, biryani, tiramisu or madeleines which was very sweet.

I decided that that Saturday would do a cookie drop off. That would get Mr NQN, Teddy and I out of the house and the cookies out of the house (and out of our mouths because that's a lot of cookies!) and sprinkle a bit of sweetness around!

I left cookies all over Sydney and I got to meet some readers too who were SO lovely! Our last drop off was at Valentina's house where we sat down to have a coffee with the cookies and it felt like we had a smidgen of our old life back. So I recommend spreading the cookie love my Dear Readers and making a big batch of these!

So tell me Dear Reader, what is one item that you really want a copycat recipe for? Have you ever tried a Do Si Do? Have you heard of Girl Scout Cookies?

Do Si Do Copycat Girl Scout Cookies

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 45 minutes plus 30 minutes chilling time

Cooking time: 12 minutes per tray

Makes 80 sandwich cookies

• 65g/2.3ozs. butter
• 50g/1.7ozs. copha or coconut oil
• 200g/7ozs. caster or superfine sugar
• 125g/4ozs. crunchy peanut butter  
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 135g/4.8ozs. plain, white flour 
• 90g/3ozs. rolled oats, roughly blitzed in a food processor
• 3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, cut into small pieces

Filling 

• 110g/3.9ozs. icing sugar 
• 100g/3.5ozs. butter, softened   
• 20ml/0.7flozs. milk 
• 90g/3ozs. smooth peanut butter 

Step 1 - Line 2 large baking trays with parchment. Beat the butter with the sugar and then add the melted copha and beat until smooth. Beat in the Bega Crunchy Peanut Butter, egg, vanilla, bicarb and salt. By hand, mix in the flour and rolled oats and mix until it becomes a cohesive dough.

Step 2 - Preheat oven to 160C/320F. Roll out half of the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment and then place in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up and repeat with the second half. Take a 3cm/1.2inch cutter and cut out circles placing them on the lined tray around an inch apart (they will spread a little). Repeat with the rest of the dough. You can roll and reroll the dough multiple times chilling them between rolling. Make a hatch pattern with a fork and place a peanut piece in the centre. Bake for 12 minutes or until light golden.

Step 3 - Place the icing sugar in a food processor and whizz until there are no lumps. Add the butter, milk and Bega Smooth Peanut Butter. Place in a large piping bag. Match like sized cookies and once completely cool, pipe some filling on one side and sandwich with the other.