I have been teasing the recipe for these bad boys over on my instagram page for WEEKS. I made these a month ago, posted a picture (because hi, these are the most photogenic cookies of all time) saying, “I’m the weirdo who makes their own girl scout cookies” and got a response that said, “No. You are an angel on this Earth. Will you be selling these in front of a Fred Meyer soon?” and “OMG do you sell those? They look amazing.”
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about myself. They look good and taste amazing. No offense to the Girl Scouts, but they taste better than the ones they sell.
A couple of years ago I posted a recipe for homemade thin mints so it made sense that my next Girl Scout cookie imitation recipe was for my other favourite cookie, samoas. I’m making sure we can all satisfy our cookie cravings all year long. No one should miss out on being able to eat these whenever they want.
Originally, I was going to post this recipe last week. Then I remembered it was pi(e) day and figured I should probably publish a recipe for pie instead of samoas. So here we are, four weeks after I made them with a recipe to satisfy your samoa cravings at any time. Worth the wait, I promise 😉
Honestly, if I was as adorable and cute as Girl Scouts are, I probably would camp outside a store trying to sell these. Maybe a New Seasons or Whole Foods? I’ve never been a Girl Scout so I might not have the right sales tactics to do this. Anyone want to help? I’ll let you eat all the cookies you can handle!
Shortbread, toasted coconut, caramel and chocolate. What more could you want in a cookie?! And they’re even better when you make them yourself because you know exactly what goes in them and you can make them as big (or small) as you want AND be in total control of how much chocolate you dip them in and drizzle over them. Your favourite Girl Scout cookie, your way!
I told a few people I’d make some of these for them so I’m going to head to the kitchen and get baking. You probably should, too 🙂
Homemade Samoas
Notes
Recipe adapted from Instructables
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp. milk
Topping:
- 3 cups shredded sweetened coconut, toasted
- 15 oz. soft caramels, homemade or store-bought
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to butter mixture. At low speed, add in the milk and vanilla.
- Separate dough into halves, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, 1/8-1/4" thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies with a hole in the middle.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While dough is refrigerating, preheat oven to 350°F. Toast shredded coconut on baking sheet for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Let cool while baking the cookies.
- Melt caramels, milk and salt in a double boiler. Cook, stirring, until caramels are fully melted. Remove from heat and combine caramel with the toasted coconut.
- Spread caramel-coconut mixture on top of cookies and let set for about 30 minutes.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Drip bottoms of cookies in the chocolate, the place on wax paper. Drizzle the tops with chocolate and let set.
