Copy-Cat Samoa Girl Scout Cookies

In my mind, it's obvious the best Girl Scout Cookie is the Samoa. I love the crispy, chewy, coconutty, caramelly combination! In trying to re-create this delicious cookie these are the factors I focused on and after some testing and altering my ideas, this is the recipe I have landed on.

I hope you love it as much as I do!

Ingredients:

Shortbread Cookie Base:

• 6 Tbsp butter (room temp)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg (if doubling recipe, don't double the egg)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup flour

Assembly:

• 2 cups Coconut
• 1 13.4-oz can dulce de leche
• pinch of salt
• 8 oz hardening chocolate (ex. candiquik, coating wafers, etc.) *not Great Value

Cookie Press (optional)

Small Tongs

• Preheat the oven to 400℉
• In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until mixture is fluffy and almost white in color
• Add the vanilla and egg and beat for another minute
• Gradually add the flour and beat until incorporated

There are 2 methods for this step. The first one uses a Cookie Press but if you don't have one, method 2 works great!

Method 1: Cookie Press

• Put the wreath shaped disk in the cookie press (or any shape that is circular and has a hole in the middle)
• Fill the press with cookie dough
• Press dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet
• Bake for 2-3 minutes then rotate the cookie sheet and bake for another 2-3 minutes or until the cookies are set to the touch but not browned
• Set hot pan aside to cool for a couple minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack

Method 2: Freestyle

• Sprinkle some flour on a flat work space and form cookie dough into a ball
• Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough so it is roughly 1/8 inch all around
• Look around your kitchen for something circular that is roughly the size of a Samoa cookie that could be used like a cookie cutter (ex. Small cup). Once that is found, find another smaller cookie cutter-like item that would work to punch out the middle of the cookie (ex. Piping tip).
• Use those items to cut the cookies into their small donut-like shape and continue this process until all the dough Is used
• Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 4 minutes then rotate cookie sheet and bake for another 4 minutes or until the cookies are set to the touch but not browned (time will vary based on the size of your cookies)

• Once all the cookies are baked, set your oven to a low broil (or 415℉ broil)
• Spread the 2 cups coconut onto a cookie sheet in an even layer and spray with cooking oil
• Place oven rack on the very top of the oven and place cookie sheet on that top rack. Set a timer for 30 seconds then take out
• Repeat this process while stirring and spraying the coconut between every 30 second burst until the coconut is a beautiful, golden, even brown
• Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside to cool

• Prepare the cookies to be covered in caramel by placing a cooling rack over a baking sheet to catch the extra caramel and make sure the cookies are not touching
• Pour the can of dulce de leche into a cereal bowl and microwave for 20 seconds
• Melt and pour 6 Tbsp of butter and pinch of salt into the dulce de leche and stir until incorporated and creamy
• Measure out 5 Tbsp of this dulce de leche mixture and mix into the toasted coconut
• Microwave the remaining mixture for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until hot but not bubbly
• Add 2-3 tablespoons of warm water to mixture, 1 Tbsp at a time, until it is a good consistency to pour over and cover the cookies but not thin enough to completely roll off. You can test this consistency on the back of a spoon, making sure it leaves a nice covering of caramel that isn't clumpy.
• Once the caramel is at a good consistency, move quickly to pour the caramel over the cookies, making sure to cover them all

• While trying not to eat all the coconut and caramel mixture, arrange it along the top of the cookies. I intentionally added a little more coconut in this recipe than was necessary so you could add as much as you wanted and to allow for the possible difference of cookie sizes.
• Chop the 8 oz. of chocolate into small even pieces and place in a microwavable cereal bowl. Microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring in between, until chocolate is smooth.
• Moving quickly, grab each cookie with tongs, place in the chocolate, move around until most of the shortbread base is covered, let chocolate drip for a couple seconds, then place on parchment paper (if chocolate pools and drys on the parchment paper, you may want to cut the excess chocolate from around the cookie)
• Repeat this until all the cookies are dipped in chocolate (you may need to reheat the chocolate if it starts to thicken too much)
• Using a fork and the excess chocolate, drizzle the tops of the cookies (the original Samoa cookie has 4 stripes going the same direction, if you want to get exact:)
• Let chocolate dry and harden before enjoying!