Christmas Cookies ~ Chocolate Dipped Coconut Caramel Cookies, Samoas

A buttery shortbread cookie base, covered with salted caramel and toasted coconut, and then dipped and drizzled with smooth dark chocolate...mmm a match made in heaven, or the kitchen, whichever you prefer ;)

Happy Christmas Eve everyone, it's officially my favorite day of the yearI really wanted to squeeze in one more cookie recipe before Christmas, and I got it done! This one is one of my husbands favorite cookies and it's been on my to-make list for awhile. This is a copycat version of the yummy and much loved, Girl Scout Samoa Cookies.

Here's what you'll need to make these delicious babies...

Ingredients for Cookies:

• 1 cup, 2 sticks of Salted Butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 cups Al Purpose Flour
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp Milk
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Ingredients for Coconut Topping

• 3 cups Sweetened Shredded Coconut
• 15 oz. Caramels, soft store bought or homemade, I used Kraft
• 3 tbsp Milk
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 10 oz. Dark Chocolate, I used Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsals

Directions for Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In mixer, cream together butter and sugar.
3. Stir the dry ingredients together and then slowly incorporate them into the butter mixture.
4. Scrape the sides of the bowl well and the add in the milk and vanilla until blended.
5. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour.
6. Once the dough is chilled, remove from the refrigerator and plastic wrap, and roll out on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch, little thicker is better. 
7. Cut out cookies using a doughnut cutter or a biscuit cutter and two-liter lid like me :)
8. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
9. Bake for 9 minutes. You want a nice pale golden color, don't over bake them.
10. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Directions for Coconut Topping:

1. Spread coconut out evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes until a light golden color. Watch it very closely and mix it around frequently, it will burn quick!
3. Remove it from the oven and put the toasted coconut in a medium sized bowl to cool.
4. Melt the unwrapped caramels, milk and salt in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir frequently until it's smooth.
5. Pour 3/4 of the caramel over the toasted coconut and mix it together.
6. Working in small batches, about 12 cookies at a time, I did it like this because the caramel starts to dry before you get all the topping on them, take the remaining caramel and thinly coat the cookies. 
7. Then take the coconut mixture and gently, gently press it on top of the cookies, if you're too rough with them while pressing on the topping they will break, and you will cry. 
8. Alternate putting the caramel and then coconut on until all the cookies are coated. If the coconut or caramel gets to stiff to spread between batches, just put it over the double boiler again to soften it up.
9. Let the cookies cool and set for 30 minutes.
10. Melt 10 oz. of dark chocolate in a double boiler and stir well.
11. Dip the bottoms of the cookies in the chocolate and place on waxed paper.
12. Drizzle the tops of the cookies with the remaining chocolate.
13. Let the chocolate set and then enjoy, and if you're inpatient like me you can sit them in the fridge for a couple minutes to hurry things along lol

I followed this recipe from juststaste.com, but I did make a few changes and have some things to take note on.

*First of all the recipe says it will take 2 hours, that is not even close, it took me 4! There are a lot of steps and your hands are all up in the cookies business from start to finish. These are a lot of work!

*Use salted butter, I always bake with salted butter.

*I rolled the dough out in between 1/8th and 1/4th of an inch, and it will stick so use plenty of flour on the board and pin. An I used a biscuit cutter and 2 liter bottle lid to cut out the doughnut shape.

*The cookies only needed to bake 9 minutes, not 10-13, and I only baked one pan at a time. I also recommend buying silicone mats, I always use them for baking.

Good news is that they cool quickly!

*The coconut burns easily and fast. As soon as you think it's about done, take it out, don't leave it on for another minute or else you'll be running to the store 2 days before Christmas for just a bag of coconut and end up waiting impatiently in line forever to check out.
Before...

 After...toasted, not burnt :) Second times a charm!

*Stir the caramels often and remove from heat as soon as it's smooth.

*I have an extra double boiler that I put the coconut & caramel in so I could remelt the mixture when it got too stiff. A glass bowl will also work.

*You have to put the thin layer of plain caramel on the cookie first, don't skip that part, I tested it on one cookie, the coconut caramel layer won't stick very good if you don't.

*I used 10 ounces of chocolate and after dipping the bottom of the cookies I put the remaining chocolate in a ziplock, cut a small hole in the corner and drizzled the tops of the cookies.

That's it, sorry it was such a long tutorial, but I wanted to document how much work fun these were to bake. Thanks for reading :)