100th Post! Homemade Girlscout Samoas

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a very pregnant woman and she was constantly hungry due to the fetus sucking the life out of her.

One day, the gigantic pregnant woman was sitting at work, ready to eat her arm off from hunger. Suddenly, her boss walked in carrying an armload of girl scout cookies. And proceeded to be cruel and set them on the empty desk next to her. For an entire day. EVIL.

Finally, the kind boss distributed the cookies to the patiently waiting workers and the humongous pregnant woman devoured half a box of samoas in one breath.

Thankfully, the pregnant woman eventually gave birth, shrank to a slightly less enormous state and found a recipe for said cookies to help restore herself to said enormous state. 🙂

While these cookies aren’t exactly the same as a girl scout samoa (obviously) they’re extremely close and delicious. Being that we made them 2 days ago and there are only 2 of the bars left.

Ingredients:

Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Directions:

To make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350° and prepare a 13×9 in pan by spraying lightly with oil.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Next add in the vanilla and egg and blend. Gradually, blend in the flour and salt. The mixture will be crumbly.

Press the dough into the pan evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned.

Cool the shortbread completely before adding toppings.

To make the topping:

Preheat the oven to 300°.

Toast the coconut on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper until browned, aprox. 20 minutes- stir every 5 minutes.

Unwrap the caramels and place an a microwave-safe bowl. Add in the salt and milk. Heat in the microwave, stirring occasionally, until melted. This will take about 3-4 minutes.

Once the caramel is melted, mix together with the coconut and spread into an even layer over the top of the cookie.

Once the topping is completely cooled, cut the bars into even squares.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Dip the bottom of each bar into the chocolate, then place onto wax paper. Drizzle additional chocolate over the top of each bar in a pretty samoa pattern 🙂

Let cool completely before packaging.

Source: Baking Bites