Girl Scout Samoas

I was offended recently to find that many long time recipients of my baked goods had gone behind my back a procured cookies from a certain other supplier. While this hurts me deeply, I really can’t argue against the cookie perfection achieved in the Girl Scout’s Samoa. I therefore have no other choice. It is time to take the gloves off and take on the throne.

To make Samoas you will need 1 cup and 12 tablespoons of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 cup of light corn syrup, 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk, 8 cups of shredded coconut. and 2 cups of chocolate chips. It is fantastic to know that we are teaching our girls about healthy living at such a young age.

First we need to make the shortbread base of the cookie. Here, the Girl Scouts cheat by just using their trefoil cookie recipe. Step one is to cream together half of the sugar and 1 cup of the butter.

Next add the milk, eggs, and half of the vanilla.

After that is combined, add the flour, salt, and baking powder and mix well.

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. I think I independently keep the parchment paper industry in the black.

The shortbread dough should be smooth.

Line the dough in the baking pan to an even thickness, and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

Now for the caramel candy bit. Start by heating the remaining sugar, 12 tablespoons of butter (if you got a standard 1lb block of butter, you will have 4 tablespoons left over when all is said and done), and corn syrup in a large sauce pan. This one is a 4 quart pan, and it is just about the right size.

Mix everything well so it blends together nicely.

Bring the whole thing to a boil, and keep it at a boil for about 4 minutes while stirring constantly.

Retrieve the base cookie from the oven, and set it to cool while the candy part comes together.

Now that the oven is free, spread out the coconut on your spare baking sheet with parchment paper, and put it in the oven to toast.

Add the condensed milk to the candy mixture, and heat on low, stirring constantly (Seriously, this will burn in an instant. Don’t even blink at it).

Apply low heat and stir until the mixture reaches about 225, which you will need to check with your candy thermometer. When it reaches that temperature, remove it from the heat. This is a good point to note that, while the caramel is now tasty, it is also silly hot, but more than that it is also incredible sticky. If you try to taste it now you will wind up with a searing sticky mess all over your hands and the inside of your mouth (One of which will bother you more than the other; I will let you guess). This will make you unhappy, and put a damper on the rest of the experience.

Rescue your toasted coconut from the oven when it has just started to brown.

The caramel should look caramel colored.

Dump in the toasted coconut . . .

. . . and combine until you achieve a uniformly distributed heterogeneous composite structure.

Spread the candy mixture over the shortbread cookie base to an even thickness.

Melt some chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly and removing it from the heat promptly once it melts.

At this point you can either drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie to create the look of the actual Samoa cookies, or just spread it out over the whole thing. I think my method provides more value per cookie due to additional chocolate content.

Cool, slice, and share.

Recipe:

Citation: I put this recipe together from numerous sources, many years ago, and I don’t remember where I found each piece. I obviously make zero claim to any originality here. The Girl Scouts “own” the name “Samoas”, but I have not been in contact with them, and I make no claim that this homage recipe in any way reflects their recipe.

1 cup and 12 tbsp butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
8 cups shredded coconut
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Cream together 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add the eggs, milk, and 1 tsp of vanilla, and mix together. Add flour, salt, and baking powder, and combine.

Spread the dough out onto a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven.

Place shredded coconut on baking sheet with parchment paper and toast it in the oven, tossing periodically, until just turning brown.

In a 4 quart pot, combine 12 tbsp of butter, 1 cup of sugar, and the corn syrup, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stirring constantly, boil the mixture for 4 minutes. Add sweetened condensed milk while still stirring constantly (it will burn in an instant, so don’t even blink at it) and cook over low heat (I said LOW!) until the mixture reaches 225F. Remove the pot from the heat, beat in 1 tsp vanilla until creamy, and stir in toasted coconut. While the mixture is still hot, spread it on top of the baked shortbread cookie base. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, and spread it on top of candy mixture. Cool, cut, and serve.

Yield: 1 11×17 sheet