Homemade Girl Scout Cookies

As Spice said, I have been on a bit of a baking binge lately. That being said, it was hard to decide which of my recent forays with sugar would get the privilege of getting my first blog post.

The winner: Girl Scout Cookies: Samoas.

I made these last weekend and really enjoyed the whole process! I got the recipe from Baking Bites: http://bakingbites.com/2008/01/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas/. I have also retyped the recipe below. There are lots of steps to this cookie, which I think make it more fun, but it is a bit time consuming!

Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Work into a ball, adding just enough milk to make it soft. Separate the dough into two pieces. Roll one piece out to about 1/4 of an inch and use a cookie cutter to cut them. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cool several minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut on a baking sheet with sides(I used baking dish because it was all I had). Toast for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes). Let cool on baking sheet.

Unwrap caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl with milk and salt. Microwave in 60 second intervals, stirring each time, until caramels are melted. When smooth, fold in coconut. Spread topping onto cooled cookies.

While topping sets, melt chocolate in a small bowl by microwaving on 30 second intervals. Dip the base of each cookie into chocolate and set on a piece of parchment paper. Drizzle the remaining chocolate on the top of each cookie.

Let cool and enjoy! Or share with other people so you don't enjoy too much =)