Homemade Girl Scout Cookies Samoas Recipes

Steps:

• Beat butter, white sugar, and salt together in a bowl; add 2 cups flour and stir. Beat 1 cup flour into butter mixture; mix until a sticky dough forms.
• Whisk egg, vanilla extract, and milk together in a bowl. Beat remaining flour and egg mixture into dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Break off a small portion of dough and roll it out on a lightly floured work surface into a 1/4-inch thick round. Place round on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Bake cookies in the preheated oven until slightly golden and soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Cook and stir coconut in a large skillet over medium heat until golden brown and toasted, 2 to 4 minutes.
• Melt caramel bits in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Stir coconut into caramel. Press a spoonful of caramel-coconut mixture into the top of each cookie.
• Melt chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth, about 60 seconds. Dip the base of each cookie into melted chocolate and place dipped cookies on parchment paper until chocolate sets. Drizzle chocolate over the top of each cookie.

Steps:

• Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 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. 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. 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. (See Notes for cookie cutter alternatives.) Place the cut-out cookies on a Silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. 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: 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. (See Notes.) Remove the toasted coconut from the oven and set it aside. 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 3/4 of the caramel with the toasted coconut in a large bowl. Carefully spread the remaining 1/4 cup of caramel atop the cooled cookies then press on a portion of the coconut mixture. Let the cookies cool for 30 minutes. If the caramel-coconut mixture thickens too much at any point while pressing it onto the cookies, return it to the double-boiler and warm it until it's spreadable again. Melt the dark chocolate in a double-boiler or in the microwave. 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. NOTES: If you don't have a doughnut-shaped cookie cutter, you can use two cookies cutters (such as a circular 2-inch and a circular 1-inch) to form the ring shape. Alternately, you can use the caps to any dry spices to serve as cookie cutters. If the dough is too firm to roll out after being refrigerated, let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling and cutting out the cookies. The shortbread should be very pale golden in color. When in doubt, underbake it! If using dark chocolate chips, 8 ounces is equal to about 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips. Coconut burns very quickly, so keep an eye on it and stir often! Spreading the cookies with the reserved 1/4 cup of caramel gives the coconut mixture a stickier base to adhere to.

Steps:

• First, make the crust.
• Preheat oven to 350°F Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.
• Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
• Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
• Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
• When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it's easy to get it through the topping).
• Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
• Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.
• Makes 30 bar cookies.
• Note: You can simply drizzle chocolate on top of the bars before slicing them up if you're looking for yet an easier way to finish these off. You won't need quite as much chocolate as noted above, and you won't quite get the Samoas look, but the results will still be tasty.