Are you in the midst of a Girl Scout cookie dry spell? I recently found myself missing my favorite GSC, the Samoa, also known as Caramel deLites, and thankfully, souring the recipe was a cinch. Not surprisingly, it turns out that I’m not the only one who was craving a Girl Scout cookie when I couldn’t have one. With a simple search, irresistible recipes can be found online for other fave flavors such as Thin Mints and Tagalongs.
Bake these for Thanksgiving as a special dessert served atop vanilla ice cream, and people just might come knocking on your door! I recommend making them a day before serving, as I found them to be much tastier the second day. From one sweet tooth to another, I bring you the amazingness that is Homemade Samoas.
Homemade Samoas
Recipe adapted from Ramshackleglam. Serves about 30+ cookies, depending on size.
COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
TOPPING
3 cups shredded coconut
12 ounces chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chips are OK)
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well, then add vanilla and mix well again. I found it easiest to ditch the utensils and use my hands — the dough should come together in a soft-but-not-too-sticky ball.
4. Set the dough ball in between two sheets of wax paper. Roll it to a sheet about 1/4″ thick. Make sure not to roll it too thin — a thicker cookie will be easier to handle once baked!
5. With a circular cookie cutter, or a small glass with a diameter of about 1 1/2″, cut your cookie shapes and set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Using the opening of a glass or plastic drinking bottle, or the tip of a knife, “cut” center holes out of the cookies. You can either bake these to make donut hole-sized cookies, or recycle them into the next rolling of dough!
7. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes and let cool.
TOPPING
1. Spread the coconut in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Toast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden-brown, stirring occasionally.
2. Place caramels in a microwave-safe baking dish with the salt and milk and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring in between, until smooth. If your mix appears to be too stiff, add more milk!
3. Fold the toasted coconut in to the heated caramel. If the mix becomes unmanageably difficult to stir, add more milk, and set in the microwave to soften.
4. Using a butter knife, or offset spatula, spread the coconut caramel mixture onto each cookie. With the right consistency, the mix should be gooey enough to easily drip and spread on the cookies without any pressure. Dripping into the center is fine, and just makes the cookies even more delicious.
5. Set dipped cookies aside in the refrigerator to speed the settling and cooling of the coconut caramel topping.
6. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring in 30-second increments until smooth. Once cooled, dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate letting the excess drip off, and set the dipped cookies on parchment paper. (Warning: your hands and fingers will become covered in chocolate!)
7. Put the remainder of the melted chocolate in a sandwich-sized bag, and cut a small hole in the corner. Drizzle the chocolate over the tops of the cookies. Place them in the refrigerator so the chocolate can set before serving.
8. Bring homemade Girl Scout cookie joy to all whom you serve!
Does your sweet tooth still have a craving? Take a bite at our wordplay game on Twitter, #feastofbands. Combine one part wit with one part words by taking a food-related word or phrase and combining it with one of your favorite musicians or bands. Think along the lines of “The Rolling Scones,” and you could find yourself with one of three $50 gift certificates!
Happy baking, and happy tweeting!
1 love 
Yes! Samoas are my fave! Well, maybe a close second to do-si-dos. So glad you guys posted this.
OMG! I LOVE you guys. My friend loves loves loves samoas, and she always bemoans the fact that she has to wait for the Girl Scouts to come around selling them. Definitely passing this on to her.
It’s funny, I can’t stand coconut but I do like samoas! They’re just good! My fav girl scout cookies are thin mints though XD
OMG! these look incredible! Can’t wait to try them.
Check out today’s post on nails inc. glitter top coat!
<3 Lauren
http://eyeblinkfashion.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/product-review-nails-inc-electric-lane-holographic-glitter-top-coat/
I sold these for 10 years and never thought to make them myself. Can’t really keep these in your freezer like Thin Mints, so making them in the off Girl Scout season is so smart. :)
ox,
Christina
http://www.becauseofmadalene.blogspot.com
ahh! I love samoas! I get at least five boxes every year…definitely going to try this recipe out
These look uhh-mazing no more hiding the Girl Scout cookie stash in the freezer!
I am definitely making these for Thanksgiving… Samoas are my all time fav!
OH! I am freaking out right now! This is wonderful. And thank you for calling them Samoas and not Caramel DeLites. Keepin’ it real.
offaladorable.blogspot.com
i love samoas. My daughter joined girl scouts this year, im going to be one of her best customers hehe.
Samoas were by far my favorite girl scout cookie growing up! I actually remember losing a loose tooth to a samoa cookie once… SO SO SO excited to now be able to whip up a batch up of my own!
I might give this a try after my exams are done, we don’t get them in Canada so I really want to give them a try.
At first I misread it as Samosas, a moment of confusion until I remembered the cookies.
I made them today… AMAZING!
It’s a bit time consuming but the end result is worth it!
I finally made these to give out on Christmas, so wonderful! Very close to the real deal and although somewhat time consuming, the process and end result were delicious! Thank you for posting this!
well with the coco nut I had some problems but even though they did not look as good as yours, they tasted super good! Shared them with my roller derby team and they all loved them. thanks so much for all your recipes, I am just discovering this blog even thou I’ve been a mod cloth shopper for two and a half years now.
I bookmarked this recipe months ago and finally made them last night.. They don’t taste like samoas but they are still yummy. Much chewier, not as crisp as the real deal, but my fiance said they are even better :) They are not difficult, just time-consuming!! For cutting the dough I used a letter “o” cookie cutter from my alphabet cookie cutters and it worked great!
made these tonight and took me ovr 2 hours!! as for the caramel-coconut mixture,it was very messy. The dough was sticky and didn’t really have a “doughy” feel but once they baked and came out of they oven they were perfectly fine. My chocolate chips burned twice even though i did 10 second intervals and stirred between each one. Therefore, i wasted almost a cup of chocolate, so i had to melt mini hersheys which i only had four of so there wasn’t enough chocolate and i didn’t have any left. As for the end result, they were pretty good, but i had higher expectations. Thanks for the recipe but I highly doubt that i will ever make these again just because it can be frustrating if something goes wrong. Thanks again:)