13) Treat Thursdays

For Treat Thursday, we made Samoas Bars (a.k.a. Caramel Delights Bars).  Like the Girl Scout Cookies.  This yummy recipe is from Foodologie.

Wanna make your own?  Follow this recipe.

Samoas Bars

from Foodologie

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 c. shredded coconut

12 oz. caramels

3 T. milk

20 oz. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugar together.  Add in egg and vanilla.  Mix throughly.  Mix in the flour and salt just until combined.  Press into a 9 x 13 pan.  (I’m not sure if you have to grease it first, since it’s cookies, but I did just to be safe.  I have kitchen troubles, so I try to avoid mishaps by just greasing the heck out of everything…which is NOT good advice because it can cause its own troubles…)  Bake about 20 minutes.  Cool.

While that’s cooling, start toasting your coconut.  Lower the oven temp to 300 and spread out the coconut on a baking sheet.  This was supposed to take about 10 minutes, and I’m sure it does for most people.  For me, it took about 25.  At about 20 minutes, I moved my oven rack to the highest space and it went a little faster.  Just keep an eye on it and turn about every five minutes.  When golden, remove from oven and cool.

Next, you melt the caramels.  Most people will do this in a microwave.  Put the caramels in a bowl with the milk, microwave for 3-4 minutes, remembering to stir every 30 seconds.  You can also do this on the stove, just FYI.  For those of us who are less technologically advanced…

When the caramels are evenly melted, add the coconut and stir well.  Then, spread this mixture onto the cookie base.  The folks at Foodologie recommend greasing your spatula for this or spraying with a bit of Pam.  That would’ve been a great idea had I noticed it earlier…  But ours turned out okay, too.  :)

When the caramel/coconut mixture is completely cool, cut the bars.  Now, it’s time for the chocolate.  Melt in the microwave (or on the stove…), stirring every 30 seconds.  Dip the bottom of each bar in the chocolate and then set on wax paper or parchment paper.  Pipe the remaining chocolate on top in little stripes (you can use a Ziploc bag for this, snipping off the corner) just like on real Samoas!

Allow to cool (refrigeration is acceptable and will let you eat them sooner!  YAY!).

Enjoy!  :)