Homemade Samoas Cookie Recipe | Bakers Royale (2024)

March 31, 2011 By Naomi Robinson | Bakers Royale 40 Comments

Homemade Samoas Cookies ~ Now you can enjoy one of the most popular Girl Scout cookies year around. Keep reading for the homemade Samoas cookie recipe. It’s a lot easier than you might think.

I have to admit I’m kind of excited about this recipe. They taste great and appearance wise they are pretty closeto looking like the real thing. Ahem, don’t go in for a close up, my chocolate dipping totally gives it away.

Samoas cookies are my favorite Girl Scout cookie and as a whole, they come in right behind the Thin Mints as the second best selling Girl Scout cookie. This surprised me since I would have bet money that Tagalongs were the second most popular (psst. . check next week’s post for homemade Tagalongs). Luckily I’m not a gambling woman.

But I am an obsessive baker. I have sweet treats in the fridge, half assembled desserts on the countertops and bake sheets full of multi-sized prep bowls full of ingredients for the next recipe. Seriously, I have a problem that I hope never goes away.

Although this past week was a little crazier than usual since I was testing more than a few recipes along with these Homemade Samoas Cookies. As many of you know my home is not filled with dessert partakers. Unless its peanut butter, salted caramel or coconut I’m guaranteed a session of forceful persuasion to get my boys to test anything I make.

Thankfully, Matt loves coconut and was happy to be my tester on this one and he gave it big thumbs up. After his thumbs up came a few more so I’m comfortable in saying “Whoo-hoo to finally nailing a homemade Samoas cookie recipe!”

A few notes:

• The cookie portion of the Samoas is a basic shortbread andvery forgiving, so don’t worry-it’s not possible to overwork the dough when you are rolling it out.
• Since the caramel coconut topping is sweet enough on its own, I lessened the sweetness of the short bread cookie portion.
• Keep a watchful eye when toasting the coconut, as it goes from toasting to burnt quickly.
• Keep a warm bowl of water and towel near when you are assembling the cookie. The caramel coconut topping is sticky and will require you to clean your spatula off after a few cookies.

For more Samoas recipes check out:

• Samoas Cupcakes by Bakers Royale ~ Shameless self-promotion.
• Samoas Truffles by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen ~ Truffle + Samoas = Happiness
• Samoas on a Stick by Cookies and Cups~ Because everything on a stick is just plain better.
• Samoas Scones by Crustabakes~ WORD.

Homemade Samoas Cookies

Makes 50-60 cookies

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 Degrees. Line bake sheet with parchment.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb sweetened coconut, toasted
• ½ cup of confectioner sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 11oz. bag of Kraft Caramels
• Chocolate Pouring Sauce Click here for the recipe and double it.

Instructions:

1. Place coconut on bakesheet and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 10-minutes. Make sure to stir the coconut half way through.
2. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour and beat until combined. Place dough in refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes.
3. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out the dough to an 1/8 of an inch in thickness. Using a two inch round cookie cutter stamp out cookies and for the center use the wider end of a piping tip if you don’t have a small enough cookie cutter. Place stamped out cookies on parchment lined bakesheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
4. Place caramel squares in a medium size sauce pan over medium heat to melt. Once the caramel bits are completely melted reserve ½ a cup of mixture in a shallow bowl; set aside. Add the toasted coconut to the remaining caramel mixture. Fill a shallow pan with hot water and place saucepan filled with the finished caramel coconut in it to keep the mixtureat spreading consistency. Reheat mixture as needed to maintain spread consistency during assembly.

Assembly:

1. Dip tops of cookies into the reserved caramel bowl. This will help the sticky caramelcoconutmixture to quickly adhere to the cookie. Place cookie on a flat surface and using an icing spatula or butter knife spread caramel coconut mixture on to the cookie. If necessary, use a spoon to guide the caramel coconut spread off the icing spatula and on to the cookies. Let cookies rest for 30 minutes before dipping the bottoms in chocolate and drizzling the striping on top.