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Over the years, I’ve found some fun and creative ways to use my stash of Girl Scout cookies. By far, one of my favorites is in these Tagalong Crescents. These buttery, flaky treats are super easy to put together and they take hardly any time at all. The pastry is nothing more than store bought refrigerated crescent roll dough. The dough is filled with a rich and creamy blend of cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, chocolate chips and crushed Tagalong cookies. Honestly, from start to finish, these little babies will take you less than a half hour to prepare. As you take that first delectable bite of tender, warm from the oven pastry surrounding smooth and lush chocolate-peanut buttery goodness, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.
I use creamy peanut butter for this recipe, but crunchy will work fine here too. Don’t use that “natural-style” peanut butter, though. It’s oily, grainy and I don’t know how it would bake up either. If you do use it and your crescents suck, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
When your cream cheese and peanut butter mix is nice and fluffy, stir in the crushed cookies and some chocolate chips. I use mini chips because I find that they melt a little easier. But, just use what you have handy. I don’t think it really matters a whole lot.
Once your filling is ready, it’s time to unroll the crescent dough. Set the triangles on a baking sheet lined with either parchment paper or a Silpat, and spread a small blob of filling onto each one. Leave a small border around the edges so that you don’t have a big, oozing, melted mess when you bake them. Unless of course, you like big, oozing, melted messes. Then, by all means, spread to the edge!
After that, roll up each of the dough triangles, starting from the wide end.
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When all of the triangles are rolled into crescents, brush each with some egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar. This will make the crescents golden on the outside.
Bake the crescents until they puff up and brown.
Let them cool for a few minutes and drizzle some melted chocolate chips on top. You can skip this step, but since you already have an open bags of chips, you might as well use them.
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That’s it! Didn’t I tell you that this recipe was easy? And, you probably already have all of the ingredients lurking around in your kitchen, except maybe for the Tagalongs. But, I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find those. You really must try these. The kids will love them, and you will too!
Tagalong Crescents
Makes 16 crescents
Ingredients:
1 box Tagalongs
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water (This is the egg wash.)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, divided
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat (silicone) liners.
2. Pulse cookies in food processor until coarsely ground, or you can place cookies in a zip lock bag and crush them by hand using a meat mallet or rolling pin or the bottom of a small pot.
3. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and peanut butter together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in the cookie crumbs and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. Set aside.
4. Separate the crescent roll dough into 16 triangles. Spread a heaping teaspoon of the cookie/cream cheese mixture onto each of the triangles. Starting at the wide end, roll up each crescent and place on a prepared baking sheet about 2-inches apart. Brush each crescent with some of the egg wash, and sprinkle a little granulated sugar on top.
5. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.
6. While turnovers are cooling, place remaining cup of chocolate chips in a small bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds. Wait a few seconds and stir. If all the chips are not melted, continue to microwave in increments of 10 seconds until all melted and smooth.
7. Drizzle melted chocolate over turnovers and enjoy.
Still hungry? Come visit me at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy for more great recipes!
