Let's Leave this to the Girl Scouts

I saw this recipe last week for the Girl Scout Samoas cookies...and lets just say I was pretty freaking excited to make them (they are the yummiest cookies EVER!). So I showed the recipe to my boyfriend, and he's been begging me to bake them all week. After work today I stopped at the store to pick up the few ingredients I was missing.

Onto the recipe and adventure.

Samoas
(also known as Caramel de-Lites)
Makes about 3 1/2 to 4 dozen

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
up to 2 tablespoons milk

Brown sugar, what are you doing there??? Oops...

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, next, the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk only as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (you may not need any at all). Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough seems sticky.

It's easiest to roll the dough out in 2 or 3 batches (between pieces of wax (or parchment) paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or a little thinner) using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds.
I couldn't find my cookie cutterssssssssss...so, I rolled out small balls of dough and smushed them down with a lid :) worked like a charm. I'm ghetto like that.


Place on a parchment lined (or on silicone mat) baking sheet and make a hole in the center. I used the small end of a large round piping tip.
Um, sorry this picture is kind of perverted...moving right along...

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are very lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, to allow them to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Forgot to take a pic of the baked cookies, my bad...my bad.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-ounces good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips will do)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F)

Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Watch carefully, especially near the end of toasting time; the coconut toasts very quickly once it begins to become golden.

OMG...this toasted coconut smells and looks heavenly...if only I would have known what would become of this....

Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Oh, crap...I forgot to get the caramels. Proceed, for the next hour, begging boyfriend to go to the store for you. In which, he will finally give in, since you ARE baking these darn things for him.

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.

Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it begins to firm up, to make it soft and spreadable once again.

After about 5 mins of trying really freaking hard to do this step, and 4 retarded looking cookies later...

.......................................................

WTF?? Those have to be the ugliest cookies I have ever attempted to make. This is where I get frustrated and give up, thank the boyfriend for getting the caramels but tell him he'll have to eat plain cookies and coconut caramel candies.

...and buy Samoas from the Girl Scouts next time they are in front of Vons.

I cry.

PS, not sure what happened here, as I am pretty much (usually) a great lil baker. If you so wish to try this out for yourself, make sure you go to the recipe I linked...and also make sure you have a few glasses of wine :)