Samoa Cookie Bars

Thin Mints may be the number one selling Girl Scout cookie in America, but my absolute favorite treat those tiny cookie pushers sell are the Samoas -- or are they called Caramel de Lites now? Regardless of the name these days, I've been known to eat an entire box of those caramel, chocolate, coconut morsels of heaven in one day all by myself.  And maybe, just maybe one time I ate two boxes. This year, in an attempt to control my cookie binging I opted not to order any Girl Scout cookies, including my beloved Samoas. However, now that it's March I'm jonesin' for my cookies and I found a loop hole. It is called the Internet. Have you heard of it? Yeah, well you can pretty much find anything on it, including a copy cat Girl Scout cookie recipes. Now, I don't need to wait to be a glutton, I can do it anytime I feel like it!

Even though this is a bar cookie recipe it is a little time consuming with all the melting, cooling and dipping involved, but trust me, it is totally worth the effort. Found a recipe for Thin Mints too, so maybe I'll give that one a try sometime soon.

Ingredients

Cookie Base
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping

3 1/4 cups shredded sweetened coconut 

12 oz of caramel candy such as Kraft Caramels -- about 50 square candies

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons milk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Cookie Base

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl cream together with a mixer sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.
• Still using a mixer, gradually add the flour and salt until mixture is moist and a little crumbly. The dough does not need to come together.
• Press the dough evenly into a 9×13-inch baking pan that is lightly greased or lined with parchment paper. 
• Bake for 25 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. 
• Cool completely before topping.

Topping

• Toast the coconut in a large skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Once toasted, set aside and allow to cool.
• Unwrap the caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook in the microwave 3 minutes until caramel is smooth. I recommend stopping every every minute or so to stir the caramel to help in melt evenly. WARNING: Watch the cooking caramel closely closely as the caramel can boil over.
• Once the caramel is melted fold in the toasted coconut with a spatula. Sparing approximately a 1/4 cup of coconut to sprinkle on top later.
• Spoon the coconut and caramel mixture over the cooled cookie base, then spread the topping evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with the remaining toasted coconut.
• Let topping set until cooled then cut into bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter 
• Once bars are cooled and cut, melt the chocolate in a small bowl. Heat in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent burning. When I melt 2 cups of chocolate in my microwave it takes about  2 minutes.
• Once chocolate is completely melted. dip the bottom of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper.
• Pipe or spoon drizzle the remaining chocolate over the top of the bars to finish.
• Put in the refrigerator to set.
• Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week.

Servings
30 Bars

A Broken Oven Tip
This may not sound like a good tip, but trust me it is! Share these cookies with family, friends, neighbors, hair stylist, mail carrier...the kid who bags your groceries, etc.  This is to prevent you from eating all the cookies by yourself.