Samoa Cookies

We try to use a lot of homeopathic and herbal remedies in our house. Our youngest daughter has horrible, horrible eczema. We had tried EVERYTHING and recently a good friend of mine told me to try coconut oil. So far, it has been working like a charm! We slather it on right after her bath and after only about a week her skin is amazingly smooth and soft. I even made myself some sugar scrub with it! (For more great homeopathic uses for coconut oil, check out this article)

The only down side to our great new find is that the aroma of my daughter now has me craving Samoa Girl Scout cookies. And of course, it is not cookie season right now!! (has anyone every really confronted the Girl Scouts of America about why they just can't sell year round? I am telling you, they could make a killing! I am thinking of stocking up this year and then selling them on Ebay in the off season! Mwahahaha!) So, instead of trying to eat my daughter (she thinks it is weird enough that I keep picking her up and sniffing her) I decided to try my hand at making my own yummy consumable cookie!

First, you need to make your basic shortbread cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Cream together your butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly add this to the butter mixture.  Then slowly add in the milk and vanilla. Split your dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap.   Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

For the topping, you'll need:

• 3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 bag (14 oz) soft caramels
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F

Toast the shredded coconut on a baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.   Let cool while shaping and baking cookies.

Line two baking sheets with foil. Roll shortbread dough on lightly floured surface. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut into your desired shape. (yeah, you will notice we just left ours in plain circles. Why cut out the middle? That's like missing half your cookies goodness!)

Bake cookies for 10-12 mins. Cool your cookies on the sheet for about 5 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack.


Place your caramels, milk and salt in double boiler and cook until well melted and mixed. About 5 mins.  Stir the toasted coconut into the caramel mixture.

Lay out a sheet of waxed paper for your cookies to rest on once they're coated on bottom.
Melt chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl in microwave, about 30 seconds. Keep stirring and heating until all chocolate is melted. Dip the bottoms of your cookies into the chocolate and place on waxed paper.  Use the remaining melted chocolate to drizzle over top of the cookies once they're all dipped. Let cookies sit until caramel topping hardens back up (about 1 hour).

Now try to remember to share them with your family and friends! I almost forgot!

Our ratings:

Mama F: 9- these totally filled my prego coconut cravings! If only I had made them a bit bigger.....

Daddy F: 7 - Not the biggest sweets fan, he would have prefered less caramel and just more shortbread. Weirdo.

Fuller Kids: 8 - They ate multiple cookies even though they had chocolate on them. (my kids dont like chocolate. More weirdos)

Lucky the Dog: 3 - Less chocolate, more bacon.