Saturday, October 22, 2011

Giant ‘Girl Scout’ like Samoa Cookies!! You can have them all year round!!

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I love Samoas. But, they are only around once a year and are pretty expensive. So, I made some. Mine are MUCH BIGGER than the Girl Scout version! But, taste great.
What a Samoa is: A shortbread cookie, covered in toasted coconut and caramel. Then the bottom is dipped in chocolate and more chocolate is drizzled on the top. Yummy!!
For the cookie, I used my William-Sonoma Cookie Press and recipe for Vanilla Cookies found in the box. You could buy some shortbread cookies if you are short on time or patience.

William-Sonoma Vanilla Cookies
· 2 sticks on softened unsalted butter (I used salted. It’s all I had.)
· 1 cup White Sugar
· 1 egg
· 2 ½ tsp. Vanilla extract
· ½ tsp Salt
· 2 ½ cups of Sifted All purpose flour

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2) In a bowl, combine butter and sugar. Mix on high speed until light and fluffy.
3) Add the egg, vanilla and salt. Beat until well mixed.
4) Add in Flour, a little at a time and mix until just blended.
5) Bake for 14 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden brown.
 
I used my Cookie press, but you could use a cookie cutter or make snakes and shape them into a wreath. Make sure it’s about ¼ inch thick when you put them in the oven.
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I like the wreaths because they are similar to the original. But, the disks were a lot easier to cover.
Next, the Caramel!! You could use 2 bags of good store bought caramel. I used my caramel recipe found here.
Now, to toast the coconut. I used 2 cups of sweetened coconut. I spread it on a pan and placed it in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. You will need to stir it every minute or so. Don’t wait until it is brown to remove it from the oven. It will continue to brown a bit while it’s cooling.
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To make the caramel soft and spreadable, I combine the caramel and 4 tablespoons of Evaporated Milk in a microwave safe bowl and heated it up in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval. If your caramels are hard, you may need more evaporated milk. I would start with 3 tablespoons and add more if you need it. You want it to be thin enough to spread but too thick to pour (about the consistency of frosting).
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You may think it is never going to mix together. Be patience and it will. It took me 4 or 5 intervals to get the mixture nice and smooth.
Once the caramel is warm and spreadable; stir in your two cups of toasted coconut. Now, you are ready to ‘frost’ your cookies! I placed a bit on the peaks of the cookies and allowed the caramel to ooze down the sides.
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After the caramel has hardened (it’s still soft but workable), I got my chocolate ready. You could use milk chocolate, dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate. I did a taste test with my family and we found we like a 50-50 mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate.
Once I melted the chocolate (I needed 8 oz of milk and 8 oz of dark) in the microwave (50% power for 30 second intervals. Stirring in between each interval), I dipped the bottoms in to the chocolate and placed the cookie on a Silpat, chocolate side down. If you are using wax paper, I would place the cookies chocolate side up and allow to dry. After they are all face up, I used a Ziploc bag, with the corner cut off) to drizzle more chocolate on the top.
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Enjoy!! They rock!!
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