Samoas (A frustrating, and successful, adventure)

I love girl scout cookies. Everyone does. People are lying if they say they don't. No diet can withstand the pull of the girl scouts. I feel physical pain when I shuffle by the tables in front of the super market. "No thanks!" I practically shout. So when I am on pinterest and I see a recipe for homemade Samoas, there really wasn't a question that I would attempt it. 

I have heard people claim that there are three kinds of girl scout cookie indulgers. Samoa fans, Thin Mint fans, and the idiots that think their favorite is one of the other ones. Although I definitely think that theory has some merit, I do like Samoas AND thin mints. To be honest though, if you held a gun to my head and made me choose? I would pick the Samoa every time. 

I was a girl scout. I don't ever remember selling cookies though. I must have been a pretty bad one. I guess I was also a "daisy" and a "brownie" and I was lucky enough for a while to have my mom as a troop leader. My most vibrant memories consist of being jealous of Kelly and Hannah and thinking that there was a ghost on our camping trip. Oh and we made t-shirts once! They were blue! Good thing my parents spent all that energy getting me into girl scouts. Ha! 

So these are the ingredients. and a bottle of wine. that was NOT for the cookies.

The first step is to cream together 1 stick of butter (i always use salted, regardless of what the recipe says) and 1/4 cup of sugar.

You want the butter and sugar to be nice and fluffed and fully incorporated. Notice that rust on my kitchen-aid? Good thing I am getting married soon!

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of flour, 1/8 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.

You are going to add the flour mixture to the creamed butter/sugar in 1/4 cup increments. This stops it from blowing all the flour all over your counter, and it gives you the opportunity to scrape the sides of the bowl and make sure its all fancy and professional looking.

Once all the flour is added and mixed in, you are going to add 1 tbsp milk. Very fancy picture taking by the man!

Now add 1/4 tsp vanilla. I am going to be honest, and call myself out. I use imitation vanilla. Like, the cheapest vanilla you can buy. I would use vanilla that comes in a 10 gallon jug for a buck. Sorry I'm not sorry!

You're supposed to divide the dough into two halves, and wrap in plastic wrap individually. We did this. But to be honest, I didnt feel like it was entirely necessary. Cook and learn!

I put the two together and they looked like they were humping. and I laughed.

The dough is going to go in the fridge for an hour. I took a picture of our fridge for posterity. Yes, that is a Denver Broncos "My Little Pony" and a Colorado Flag magnet. Be jealous.

While the dough is chilling in the fridge. We are going to toast coconut. This is pretty much my favorite part of Samoas. I love coconut. On cakes, cookies, in my candy bars, on my tooth brush. Everywhere and anywhere, I am okay with coconut. My best friend in the world DOESN'T like coconut.....yes....I'm having her committed! Spread out 1 1/2 cups of sweetened shredded coconut onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees. It takes about 10 minutes to get the coconut perfectly toasted. The secret is to stir it every minute or so. Just hang out by the oven. It smells awesome so it's not that hard. But be warned, it only takes a minute to burn all your beautiful coconut so be careful!

Perfection!!!

Time to take the dough out of he fridge! If you separated it into two halves, roll one out at a time. Otherwise, jump right in. Make sure your surface and rolling pin are nice and floured. There is a lot of butter in this dough, so it can stick. Here is a story for you though. See those cute stars of david? Yeah, we thought we were all cute and clever and hardy hah hah. But turns out. we suck are actually using cookie cutters. They got all mushed and weird and ugh. I had a moment.....

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the corners are nice and golden brown. Notice there are no more stars of david? Yeah, I threw a fit and we ended up making triangles. Stupid cookie cutters...

Put the cookies on a rack to cool. Now time for the second best part of Samoas. Caramel! You can make homemade caramel, or you can be lazy and use the soft chews. Its about...7 ounces of caramel? Like, half the bag? Put them in a heat safe bowl.

Add 1 1/2 tbsp milk, and 1/8 tsp of salt. No salt picture. The fiance was distracted when it was his turn to take a picture. TYPICAL!!

Set about two inches of water and bring to a simmer. Then put the bowl of caramelly goodness on top. This is pretty much a double broiler situation. If you are like, a billionaire and have a double broiler, go ahead and use that!

This step takes a few minutes. You want to make the caramels smooth, but not to let them boil. Once your arm is tired and you are about to say "screw it!" you will be done. Add about 3/4 of the caramel to the toasted coconut. This was another point where I threw a fit. Maybe my blood sugar was low waiting for these cookies? Mixing the coconut and caramel was almost too much for me. But it turned out. And look at my model hand! oooohhhhhh ahhhhh.....

During this time, the hubby was measuring out 4 ounces of dark chocolate chips. These are for the bottom of the cookies. Another funny anecdote. On Christmas morning, I opened a beautiful kitchen scale. I was happy but had to laugh out loud, because my wonderful fiance was also opening a beautiful kitchen scale. HA! Great minds!

The caramel that was left over after making the coconut mixture is going to be smoothed onto the cookies. It will help the coconut mix stick to the shortbread.

While the caramel is still warm enough to be sticky and soft, add a clump of the coconut mix to each cookie. The best part of this was that I got to add as much as I wanted! Much more than your average Samoa! I tell ya! Just spread the lump of coconut around so it covers the cookie.

 You can smooth the chocolate using the double broiler method, or in the microwave. Just microwave until smooth. We got these awesome pyrex dishes from my brother for christmas. Thanks bro!

The messy part! So of course I didnt do it! Smooth the chocolate onto the bottom of the cookies and place on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

And we are done! Let them set and cool and then eat. They are delicious. They didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned, but they tasted great and I will perfect them eventually!

Shortbread Cookie:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

 1 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

Samoa Topping:

1 1/2 cups coconut 

7 ounces caramel

1 1/2 tbsp milk

1/8 tsp salt

4 ounces chocolate chips

:)