Tropical Pacific Cookies (aka homemade Girl Scout Cookies Samoas or caramel delights) are fun to make and so impressive! Dare I say, these may even be tastier than the originals!
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Great homemade cookies!
These Tropical Pacific Cookies (aka homemade or copycat Girl Scout Samoas or caramel delights) are awesome!
They don’t really taste like their packaged cousins. They taste better! Fresher. More complex. More adult. Not as cloyingly sweet.
These are the cookies you want when you buy a package of girl scout cookies. These are yummmmy awesomenessss.
How to make
They are, however, quite a bit of work. They took me two days to complete. There are multiple steps.
Make the caramel (salted caramel by the way!).
Make the cookie dough. Roll the dough, and cut out the cookies.
Bake the cookies. Mix the topping. Spread the topping. Coat with melted chocolate.
All those steps! Is the cookie worth it?
OH YEAH! Without a doubt in my mind- these cookies are worth all the work. I will make these again. They are that good.
And, if you work with my husband, you might be lucky enough to get one, because I’ll be sending some to work with him to share.
Oh, and BTW, he’s the one who originally found this recipe on Instructables.
Want to learn how to Toast Coconut for a couple of different methods.
You’ll probably have leftover caramel and coconut topping. Roll this mixture into small walnut-sized balls using your hands, and dip it in melted chocolate to make caramel-coconut bon-bons.
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Tropical Pacific Cookies (aka homemade Girl Scout Samoas or caramel delights) Recipe
Tropical Pacific Cookies (Samoas)
Ingredients
Caramel:
- 7 oz 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- ½ lb light brown sugar
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon kosher or fleur de sel salt
Shortbread:
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
Topping:
- 3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 12 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate
Instructions
Caramel:
- Lightly coat a 13 x 9-inch pan with cooking spray or butter. Line the pan with waxed paper or parchment paper and coat with cooking spray or butter. (Buttering the tray before adding the paper helps keep it from slipping around while you’re pouring in the hot caramel mixture.)
- In a large pot over high heat, bring milk, corn syrup, sugar, and butter to a boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches 248oF (120oC), firm-ball stage on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt. Pour into prepared pan, and allow to cool.
Shortbread:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with a mixer or a sturdy fork until light and fluffy. Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix the milk and vanilla into the dough, using a low-speed on the mixer, or the fork.
- Separate the dough into two halves and wrap each half tightly in plastic. Refrigerate until the dough is firm.
Topping:
- While the dough is refrigerating, preheat your oven to 350F (180C). Toast the shredded coconut on a baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Let cool while shaping and baking cookies.
- Line two baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment sheets.
Prepare cookies:
- Once the dough is firm, roll it out on lightly floured surface to a thickness of 3/8-inch to ¼-inch thick. Cut out with biscuit cutter or two differently sized round cutters.
- Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet 180°, halfway through baking. Set cookie trays on cooling racks and allow to cool for about 6 minutes before taking cookies off of the trays. Transfer cookies to the cooling rack. Allow cookie sheets to cool completely before putting new cookies to be baked on them, placing raw dough on hot sheets melts the butter and makes the cookies spread.
- Place caramel, milk and salt in a microwavable bowl and microwave on high power for 1 minute at a time, stirring after each minute, until nice and melty (3-4 minutes). Stir the toasted coconut into the caramel. Using a knife or an offset spatula generously spread the caramel mixture on top of your completely cooled cookies. You may reheat the caramel mixture as needed if it becomes too hard to work with.
- Lay sheet of waxed paper on the counter. Roughly chop the chocolate and microwave on high power in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until melted. Dip the bottoms of your coconut-topped cookies into the chocolate and place on waxed paper to cool. Once all the cookies have been chocolate dipped, place the rest of the chocolate in a small ziptop bag. Cut a small hole in one corner of the bag, and pipe the chocolate on top of each cookie.
- You’ll probably have leftover caramel and coconut topping. Roll this mixture into small walnut-sized balls using your hands, and dip it in melted chocolate to make caramel-coconut bon-bons.
- Store cookies and bon-bons in air-tight containers or eat immediately! ENJOY!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Samoa’s are absolutely one of my favorite cookies! Like I stalk girl scouts down for these things! I am going to have to give this recipe a try! Thanks for linking to my “best of 2011” party!
Oh my stars. This is by far my favorite of all the Girl Scout cookies (don’t tell the Thin Mints). Thank you bunches for stopping by and linking up to Mop It Up Mondays!
{HUGS},
kristi
I really want some like now! How delish they look, thanks for sharing your recipe!
Bon appetite,
They look great and are one of my favorite cookie. I think there was a store brand my grandmother use to get simular to these and girl scouts. Yours look even better but I have decided if I can brave all the work..however I have a long New years weekend now.
Just found this recipe on pininterst….WHERE HAS THIS RECIPE BEEN ALL MY LIFE?? How super delish! Is a bit of work, but I can cut it into sections with 2 super busy under kids 2 & 4 needed my constant attention…can’t wait to taste them..GR8 Directions and pics, very clear directions, ty for sharing! 🙂
As I no longer support the GS, pretty danged excited to have these!!
I’ve always wanted to try making homemade Samoas, thanks for the recipe. They look incredible!
The recipe sounds delicious! I think I will make these for my sister’s birthday later this year – Samoa’s are her fave. I also wanted to tell you that I think your food photos are amazing! Great Work! 🙂
Maggie at The Love Nerds
Samoas are one of my favorite Girl Scout cookies! I’m pinning this to my Girl Scout board.
These cookies bring back fond memories of my years as a Girl Scout Cookie Mom…yummy!