2.16.2010

Samoas

I'm a Girl Scout turned traitor. Yes. I admit it. I joined Girl Scouts in 3rd grade when I moved to California, and stayed with it until my senior year when I earned my Gold Award (my Gold Award project focused on teaching elementary school students how to cook… awesome, right?) One of my favorite events every year was selling those amazingly delicious Girl Scout cookies (and decorating the floats for the Rose Parade). As ridiculously expensive as they were, I would still buy so many boxes of cookies each year. Tagalongs are my favorite… followed by Thin Mints and if I'm in the right mood, Samoas!


But… after trying this recipe from Baking Bites, I must admit that I would rather pay $4 for a box of Samoas than make these again. Not that they weren't delicious. They were amazing. But the time and effort it took to make these cookies were borderline being not worth it to make them by hand. (That and the fact that I actually don't like Samoas that much. Blasphemy!?)


But I must keep in mind exactly why I was making Samoas in the first place. For my dearest Christopher! Samoas are his favorite type of Girl Scout cookies. If he wanted more Samoas, I would make this recipe an infinite number of times. I would go through the endless cookie-cutting of dough, the burning caramel, and the melted chocolate over and over again if it meant making my baby happy. Due to… unfortunate circumstances (and epic failure on my part) however, Chris wasn't able to receive the cookies I made… :( But I hope he'll one day happen upon this post and still know that I love him. Happy (late) Valentine's Day babe!


Samoas

Cookies

  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Topping

  • 4 cups shredded coconut
  • 12 ounces caramels
  • 5 tbs milk
  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
To make the cookies:
  1. Cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer until white, light, and fluffy (about 7 minutes on highest speed). Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon or a spatula. Mix in the vanilla. If the dough is too dry, add in a few spoonfuls of milk or water as needed. The dough should be tacky.
  2. Separate the dough into two balls, and refrigerate one. Meanwhile, roll the other ball of dough out to 1/5-inch-thickness. Using a circular or whatever other shape cookie cutter you have, cut out as many shapes as you can (it's like a puzzle!).
  3. Take a boba straw (the thick straw used to drink boba milk tea) and use the flat end to cut out holes from the middle of each shape. Peel the surrounding dough off and throw the extra dough into the fridge. Place the dough shapes onto an oiled baking pan (don't worry if you cram them close together, these cookies don't spread or rise very much).
  4. Take the other half of the dough out of the fridge, and repeat the rolling, cookie-cutting, and boba straw-ing until you've used up all of the dough.
  5. Bake at 350F for 10 – 12 minutes (if the cookies are slightly soft right after you take them out of the oven, they'll harden as they cool).
  6. Let the cookies completely cool before you start topping them.

To make the topping:

  1. Spread the coconut evenly on a lined baking pan and toast for 300F, stirring every 5 minutes, until the coconut is golden brown. Let it cool.
  2. Unwrap the caramels and place with 5 tbs milk in a large microwavable bowl. Microwave for 1 minute, stir. Continue the 1-minute-stir process until the caramel is completely smooth and melted.
  3. Fold in all of the toasted coconut with a spatula, and then spread the topping on the cooled cookies (this sounds a lot easier than it really is… watch out for the burning caramel!)
  4. Melt the semisweet chocolate chips in the microwave (heating the chocolate chips in 40-second-increments and mixing in between) or in a double boiler (I just use a larger pot over a smaller pot with simmering water).
  5. Use a mini spatula to spread the melted chocolate on the bottom of each cookie, then place on a lined baking pan. When you are done spreading the chocolate, refrigerate the cookies until the chocolate is hardened.
  6. Take remaining melted chocolate (re-melt it if you need to) and place in a piping bag (I just use a Ziploc bag and cut off a corner) to drizzle chocolate on top of the cookies. Place back in the refrigerator until the chocolate on top is hardened as well.

3 comments:

  1. SAMOASSS I WANT SOMEEE THEY'RE SO GOOD BRING ME SOMEEE =D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi sweetie. I just wanted to let you know I almost took a bite out of my computer screen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi so I stumbled onto this page again and I still love it as much as before. :O :l :O :l

    I love you :]

    ReplyDelete