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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.
Jun
Perfect for my sweet tooth…!
Kristin
I must say those are the most impressive and deceiving remake of the girl scout samoa cookies I’ve seen on foodgawker. Nicely done.
Brittany
These look delicious, you did a great job. They almost look like the real thing!
sara
Wow, these look fantastic! I love Samoas, and it would be great to be able to have them year-round! 🙂
Carolyn Jung
No offense to my favorite, hard-working Girl Scouts, but these look WAY better than the boxed ones. Nothing beats homemade and fresh. 😉
Casey
OH MY GOSH. This looks awesome! I’ve made the Tagalongs, which were great, but BOY i need to try these!!
Tia
This is my fave girl scout cookie. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
mfay3@yahoo.com
I was going to do this for my own blog. I always end up craving Girl Scout cookies well after I have eaten my stash. So disappointing. I am happy to say that my thought pattern for these cookies is exactly the same as yours. I will stop back and let you know how mine turn out. If these took 7 days to make, they would still be worth it!
Halley (Blunder Construction)
Wow, wow! I tried to make these at home, but did not succeed at all compared to this victory! They are beautiful! Mine turned into Samoa bars, tasted but didn’t look the part.
Dina
they look just like the real thing!
Chloe
WOW, these look like the real mcCoy, these cookies are a weakness of mine, I never even attempted to make them homemade before.. Well done!
lisaiscooking
These do look worth every bit of effort! Love the caramel filling and the coconut and chocolate topping.
Laura @ GotChocolate
I think i just gained 5 lbs. mentally eating all those delicious looking cookies!!! 😀
incrediblecrunchyflavor
oh my gosh! these are my favorite cookies and i can’t wait to try making them myself!!
Julia
i will be trying this recipe!!!!!
Erin@TheHumbledHomemaker
Oh my goodness–these remind me of my Girl Scout days!! They looks SO yummy!
Krista
These are my husband’s favorite cookies of all time. I might have to surprise him with some… Thanks so much for sharing. They look amazing!
Lyuba
Wow, way to go girl! I will have to set aside some time to make these! Thank you for sharing!
Kathryn
Oh my! I’ve got to try these soon! Thanks so much for linking them up at Sweet Temptations!
Melissa
Thanks for linking at our virtual cookie swap! LOVE this! So Unique!