Samoa Girl Scout Cookies

So every year my boyfriend and I order at least one box of Samoa cookies and one box of Thin Mints from the girl scouts.  This year we chowed down the box of Samoa's really fast and we both wanted more.  I have been seeing lots of other bloggers make homemade girl scout cookies so I decided to try it too.  As I was looking through recipes I noticed that the base cookie for Samoa's and Tagalongs was the same.  So this last Sunday I decided to make both.  It turned into an all day project and I think next year I will just buy more boxes of Samoa's.  Getting the coconut Carmel mixture on the cookies was not fun and very messy, as well as dipping the cookies in chocolate was long and messy too.  And in the end, the cookies were okay, but nowhere near as good as the ones that come out of that purple box!  If I make the cookies again, I would make the cookies a bit thinner and next time I wont do the center hole cutout.  Trying to shape the sticky Carmel coconut goop around the cookie was almost impossible!  Overall it was a good experience but I am not sure it was worth my time.  If you try them, let me know how yours turn out!

Recipe adapted from Baking Bites
Yield: about 3 dozen
Cookie Ingredients:
1 Cup Butter, unsalted and room temperature
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Cups Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Milk


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky.
3. The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.
4. Divide the dough into 2-3 pieces, roll the dough out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds, or whatever you have. 
5. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use whatever you can find to cut out the center hole, (try the end of a wide straw, or a knife to cut a smaller center hole, or the base of a pastry tip).
6. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set.
7. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping Ingredients:
3 Cups Shredded Coconut (I used unsweetened but you can use either)
12oz. Chewy Caramels
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Milk
1 Cup Chocolate (I used semisweet chocolate chips but whatever you have is fine)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300. 
2. Spread coconut evenly on a baking sheet and toast 20 minutes(mine only took 5 minutes!!), stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Be sure to watch it because mine toasted REAL fast! Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
3. 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.  Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
4. Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie.  This is a messy step! 
5. While topping sets up, 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 cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a zip lock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
6. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.
7. Enjoy!