No need to wait for Girl Scout cookie season. Enjoy your favorite samoa cookies all year long with this homemade version of the popular cookies!
Check out the Girl Scouts official website to find out when these famous cookies are for sale in your neighborhood. However, if you need your cookie fix now… continue to read how to make these delicious cookies at home!
Homemade Girl Scout Cookies
These cookies taste like summer vacation. Eating these make me feel like I’m lounging on some tropical beach.
The sweet coconut, rich caramel, and decadent chocolate atop a buttery shortbread cookie equals pure deliciousness.
Here’s another homemade version of a classic. These thin mints are crunchy chocolate cookies enrobed in peppermint chocolate.
Samoa Cookies Components
- Shortbread Dough
- Coconut Caramel Topping
- Dipping Chocolate
Shortbread Dough
Use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer to beat together the shortbread cookie dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, or quicken the process by freezing for 15 minutes.
The dough uses very few ingredients. Much of its flavor comes from the butter and vanilla. As such, use fresh, high-quality butter.
At all costs, do not use imitation vanilla extract. I suggest using vanilla paste, but high quality pure vanilla extract works just as well.
Roll dough to about 1/4-inch thick. Cut out circles using a floured 2 1/2-inch cutter. Then, punch out an inner circle with a smaller sized cutter of your choice.
Carefully transfer shortbread cookie rings onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly brown.
Coconut Caramel Topping
The coconut caramel topping is a very simple to make.
Fold together toasted sweetened coconut with an easy caramel sauce. The caramel sauce is a mixture of sugar, butter, and cream.
It is important to toast the shredded coconut. Toasting enhances the depth of coconut flavor.
Dipping Chocolate
I suggest using dark chocolate. The slight bitterness of dark chocolate helps to cut through the sweetness of the coconut caramel topping.
You may use chopped chocolate bars, chocolate chunks, or chocolate chips.
To keep the chocolate in temper, gently melt the chocolate in the microwave at half power, or over a simmering double boiler.
Be careful not to overheat the chocolate! Overheated chocolate will be taken out of temper. This will result in cloudy, grainy looking chocolate as it dries.
For ease, use a small piping bag to drizzle chocolate over the assembled cookies.
Final Notes
Yes, these samoa cookies are a bit time consuming. The cookies are comprised of several elements.
However, I assure you that these cookies are not difficult to make. It merely requires a bit of preparation and patience.
Related Recipes
- A tropical take on banana cream tart, this coconut cream tart is layered with coconut caramel, coconut pastry cream, and toasted shredded coconut.
- Coconut walnut baklava is a variation featuring shredded coconut, toasted walnuts, and orange honey syrup.
- This chocolate caramel coconut cake is comprised of two coconut cake layers with a shredded coconut caramel filling. The cake is finished with both chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache.
Homemade Samoa Cookies
Ingredients
Shortbread Cookie Dough:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, , room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ Tablespoons whole milk
Caramel:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup heavy cream
- pinch kosher salt
- 3 cups sweetened dried shredded coconut, , toasted
Dipping Chocolate:
- 10 oz dark chocolate, , chopped
Instructions
Shortbread Cookie Dough:
- Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla paste in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- All flour mixture to butter mixture. Add milk and mix until dough has formed. Divide the dough into two disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare parchment lined sheet trays.
- Roll out chilled dough to ¼-inch thick. Cut out circles using a floured 2 ½ inch cutter. Punch out an inner with a smaller cutter of your choice. Lay the cookie cutouts on the parchment lined sheet trays and bake for 12-15 minutes until firm and lightly golden. Let rest on sheet tray until cool to the touch and then transfer to cooling racks.
Caramel:
- Preheat oven to 325° F. Line sheet tray with parchment paper.
- Spread coconut into a thin and even layer on prepared sheet tray. Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate pan and stir coconut. Continue to bake at 5 minute intervals, rotating the pan and stirring the coconut until golden in color. Once toasted, let cool to room temperature.
- In a medium sauce pan, add sugar. Cook over medium high heat until sugar begins to melt. Once sugar begins in liquefy, reduce heat to medium or medium-low. Do not over agitate the sugar, but swirl the pan once in a while to make sure sugar melts evenly. Continue to melt the sugar until liquid is amber brown and aromatic.
- Add butter to sauce pan. Whisk until all the butter has melted.
- Remove sauce pan from heat and slowly add the heavy cream. Continue to whisk until cream and sugar mixture are homogeneous. Be careful, once you add the cream, the sugar mixture will bubble and rise quite a bit. Be sure the sauce pan is away from heat before you add the cream.
- Continue to whisk until caramel is thick and smooth. Let cool until slightly warm to the touch. Reserve about ⅓ cup of the caramel in a separate bowl. Then add the salt and toasted coconut. Fold into the coconut until thoroughly distributed.
Dipping Chocolate:
- Slowly melt chocolate in the microwave. Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds on full power. Stir chocolate and continue to heat at 30 second intervals at half power until chocolate is melted. Make sure not to overheat the chocolate which will bring it out of temper.
Assembly:
- Once shortbread cookies are cool, dip one side into reserved caramel sauce. Then spread about 1 ½ teaspoons of coconut caramel mixture on top of cookie. Dipping the cookie first into the reserved caramel sauce helps the coconut mixture to adhere to the cookie. Let cool on rack.
- Dip the bottoms of the cookies into the melted chocolate. Let cool on rack upside down (coconut mixture side down) until chocolate has hardened and set.
- Once chocolate is set, turn cookie right side up. Transfer remaining dipping chocolate into a small parchment bag or piping bag. Cut a small tip and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the cookies. Let cookies sit out until drizzled chocolate has set and then enjoy!
Notes
- Assembled cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
I am so excited to try these I love these cookies and so do my four siblings!!!
I want to make these cookie, but I can not find vanilla paste. Where did you find it?
I bought mine from a restaurant supply warehouse. You can find it in stores and online from Williams Sonoma or Sur la Table. You can also just swap in regular vanilla extract.
These were a lot of work, but mostly because I did everything in one afternoon while the kids were napping. :) I think I totally lucked out on my batch of caramel, despite having to simmer it a bit after adding the cream so it would thicken. I also made it a little easier by rolling the cookie dough into a log, chilling, slicing, and baking them. They still taste absolutely fabulous, even though they look a little different.
I’ll have to try doing the cookie log next time. Glad you enjoyed them :)
Hello,
I found your recipe by Googling a cookie that we used to get up here in Canada and they were to die for, we called them Chew Chews. They were exactly the same as your Samoa cookies but our Girl Guides (Scouts for you) don’t sell them and never have. Ours were made by Mr. Christy!
You were looking for a thin mint recipe and I thought it only fair to give you a recipe my Grandmother gave to me, we used to make this together when I was a child.
Mint Wafers
1 cup Real Fondant (recipe to follow)
2 tsp water
1/4 tsp (approx) peppermint extract
3 or 4 drops of green or red food colouring (for mint green & pink colour)
Break up fondant in top of double boiler. Place over water over medium-low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon as fondant melts. Stir in water, peppermint extract and food colouring, adding more if desired. When fondant is smooth and reaches a temperature of 105° F (40° C)on candy thermometer, remove from heat but keep top of double broiler over lower pan to keep fondant soft.
Drop about 1 tsp of fondant at a time onto waxed paper lined baking sheet to form small round wafers or patties. Let cool. Store in airtight waxed paper lined container at room temperature for up to 1 month.
Makes about 48
Real Fondant
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
In large saucepan, combine sugar and water. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil steadily, brushing down sides of pan several times with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil until soft-ball stage is reached (240° F/116° C on candy thermometer). Remove from heat and let bubbles subside.
Pour mixture onto marble slab or ungreased baking sheet. Let cool slightly. With metal spatula, take mixture from the center to the edge. Let cool to lukewarm. With wooden spoon and spatula, beat fondant vigorously, pulling it to center in figure 8 movement until mixture suddenly becomes white and creamy. (If mixture becomes hard and very sugary, gather it into 4 small balls and knead each one with lightly buttered hands until very smooth and creamy. Combine into one large ball for storage.) Gather into a ball and knead with lightly buttered hands until smooth and creamy.
Pack fondant into bowl or jar. Cover tightly and refrigerate at least overnight (preferably 2 to 3 days) to mellow. Makes about 1 1/2 lbs.
Thank you, thank you! I can’t wait to try out the recipe :)
Thought of you when I saw this: http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2012/03/5-homemade-girl-scout-cookie-recipes-we-love.html?ref=carousel
thanks for sharing! can’t wait to try these once the kid is in bed. I love homemade thin mints – they are just about the easiest (and most delicious) cookies you can ever make. Melt a bag of Andes mints (you can usually find a bag of broken bits by the chocolate chips in the baking aisle). Then dip Ritz crackers in the melted chocolate, and let cool on wax paper. They are amazingly yummy and are every bit as good as the girl scout ones without the ridiculous prices.
Thanks! That sounds easy and delicious! I’ll have to try that :)
Oh man, these were my favorite childhood girl scout cookies!! I love this idea so much. Yum.
Thanks! Yes, they are still my favorite girl scout cookies!
Thanks for the thin mints recipe! I’ll definitely have to try those out. So glad you enjoyed the linzer cookies! What’s your email address so I can send you the recipe? In the meantime, I have a linzer torte recipe that’s pretty similar at https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/linzer-torte/I'm not sure how well the cookies would hold up in shipping. I’ve never mailed cookies before, haha but I’d love to try :)
Mary Anne, I found this recipe awhile back for homemade thin mints. Haven’t tried it yet but I’m a fan of her cooking. Not sure how her pastry skills are, but I’m sure she wouldn’t post a sub-par recipe. http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001370.html.By the way, your linzer cookies were the best I’ve ever had, I can’t stop raving about them. My boyfriend wants to know if you’d consider shipping your goodies out here in NYC and we’ll pay you for them! Can you send me the recipe again? I don’t know what my mom did with it.