Girl Scout cookies are definitely a miss for me since food allergies. My all time favorite Girl Scout cookie used to be the Tag A Long, peanut butter, chocolate and a crisp cookie. YUM-O! But, I haven’t tolerated peanut butter in over three years, well, actually probably longer, but I gave it up over three years ago, so then my next favorite would be the Samoa aka Caramel de Lites, followed by the Thin Mint.
This recipe is a little labor intensive, but it is SO worth it. If you plan ahead and do a little prep over a couple of days it will make it a little easier. I made the cookies and toasted the coconut on one day and then the next day I melted the chocolate and dipped the cookies. Then later that day I made the caramel and put the cookies together. Like I said it’s a process, but it pays off big in the end.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen
Batch of Cookies
12 oz bag of Dark or Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (I use Hershey’s)
1 1/4 cups shredded coconut (I used unsweetened), toasted
1/2 cup Caramel Sauce
Cookie:
2 1/4 cup Healthy Flour Blend (from my cookbook, this is a blend with a protein flour in the mix and includes xanthan)
3/4 cup xanthan gum (if not in your blend)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick (8 Tbl) butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 325°
Line cookie sheets with parchment.
Combine flour, xanthan, sugar, salt in large bowl, stir to combine. Add butter, egg and vanilla and mix until the dough comes together. I used my Kitchen Aid with paddle attachment.
Using a small cookie scoop, fill the pans with the dough. Flatten the cookies, you want them to be pretty flat. The pictures show a fuller cookie, but I thought they were going to be thinner, they puffed up in cooking, so next time I will flatten them a little more. The small indent you see, I don’t think that’s necessary, I didn’t really see a benefit. If you really want them to look like a traditional Samoa, you can use a doughnut cutter or a scalloped edged cutter and then an apple corer for center. I’m more interested in the flavor profile. Plus without the hole you get more chocolate, caramel and coconut, it’s win-win, in my book.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. They will start to get lightly brown around the edges.
Chocolate:
Melt the chocolate. In a bowl over simmering hot water or you can do it in microwave, slowly, stirring every 15 seconds or so.
Dip (or spread) cookies and place on wax paper. Let the chocolate set up on the cookie. This will take a while depending on temperature in your house. You should have some left over for drizzling over the top. You’ll have to re-melt the chocolate.

Caramel Sauce – I made the sauce but I didn’t use the blender on it. I let it cool and then blended it with the coconut. (The recipe makes about a cup of caramel, you’ll use 1/2)
Toasted Coconut:
I did mine in the toaster oven. It’s a little easier to manage, but you can do it in the oven. Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn, it burns so easily. You’ll think it’s not even toasting and then all of the sudden it’s burnt! Preheat oven to 350°, spread coconut on baking sheet, toast in oven, stirring every 1-2 minutes. Yes, really, that often. Until it is a nice golden brown.
Building the cookie:
Mix the caramel sauce and 1 cup of the shredded coconut in a small bowl. Spread each chocolate dipped cookie with the mixture. Sprinkle the remaining coconut over the top of this and then drizzle re-melted chocolate over them.
Eat and enjoy!