As far as I’m concerned, there are two types of people in the world: Thin Mint lovers and Samoas lovers. I’m Team Samoas all the way! You just can’t beat the taste of toasted coconut, caramel and chocolate. I crave those Samoas alllll the time, even when they’re not in season. This recipe will help you get your Girl Scout Samoas cookie fix at any time of the year.

I have Instructables to thank for this yummy recipe. Let’s start baking! Preheat your oven to 350º F. Pull out all of your ingredients.

Using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream together the room temp butter and sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In three increments, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter, mixing between each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.


Add the milk and vanilla extract, blending until combined and the dough begins to come together in large pieces.


Use your hands to divide the dough in half, pressing it together to compact it into two disks. Wrap the disks securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate them until firm, about an hour.

Once the dough has chilled, roll each disk out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 1/8 inch thick.

Cut out as many cookies as possible with a doughnut-shaped cookie cutter. I didn’t have a doughnut-shaped cookie cutter so I just used a circle-shaped cookie cutter and a shot glass to do the smaller hole. Place the cut out cookies on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat the steps with remaining dough.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet half-way through, until the cookies are a pale golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, we can get started on toasting the coconut. Spread the coconut flakes onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake the coconut for about 10 minutes until toasted. Stir the coconut frequently to ensure even browning. Remove the toasted coconut from the oven and set aside until later.

Time to melt the caramel. Melt the caramels, milk and salt on your stovetop. Once completely melted, add your toasted coconut to the caramel mixture.

Using a knife, spread the caramel and coconut mixture onto your cookies. The last thing we need to complete these Samoas is chocolate. Chop up your chocolate and microwave it in 30 second bursts, stirring between each, until nice and melty. I made the mistake of attempting to melt my chocolate on my stove and my chocolate seized. It was a disaster, hence no photos!

Dip the cookies into your melted chocolate and place dipped cookies onto wax paper. Use the remaining melted chocolate to drizzle over top of the cookies once they’re all dipped.  

homemade Samoas ingredients:

FOR THE COOKIES:

  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temp
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 2 C flour
  • 1/4 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 T milk
  • 1/2 t vanilla extract

FOR THE COCONUT TOPPING:

  • 3 C shredded sweetened coconut
  • 15 oz store-bought or homemade soft caramels
  • 3 T milk
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 8 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate

instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In three increments, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter, mixing between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the milk and vanilla extract, blending until combined and the dough begins to come together in large pieces.
  4. Use your hands to divide the dough in half, pressing it together to compact it into two disks. Wrap the disks securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate them until firm, about 1 hour.
  5. Once the dough has chilled, roll each disk out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 1/8-inch thick. Cut out as many cookies as possible with a doughnut-shaped cookie cutter. Place the cut-out cookies on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
  6. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet half-way through, until the cookies are pale golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire wrack to cool completely.

MAKE THE COCONUT TOPPING:

  1. Spread the coconut flakes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the coconut for about 10 minutes in a 350ºF oven until toasted, stirring frequently to ensure even browning and so that it does not burn. Remove the toasted coconut from the oven and set it aside.
  2. Melt the caramels, milk and salt in a double-boiler by placing the caramels in a medium saucepot set over a large saucepot of simmering water. Cook, stirring, until the caramels are fully melted. Remove the saucepot from the heat and combine the caramel with the toasted coconut in a large bowl.
  3. Spread mixture onto the cookies. If the caramel-coconut mixture thickens too much at any point while pressing it onto the cookies, return it to heat and warm it until it’s spreadable again.
  4. Chop up the chocolate and melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second bursts. Dip the bottoms of the cookies in the chocolate and place them on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Use a fork to drizzle the tops with chocolate. Let the cookies sit until the chocolate hardens fully.


lexington