Samoas Bars

These samoas bars-slash-brownies are a knock-off of the Girl Scout favorite: Samoas! Delicious, and a great change from your everyday brownie!

These bar-slash-brownies are a knock-off of the Girl Scout favorite: Samoas cookies. The original recipe says to cut the brownies into squares and then dip the base of the bars in chocolate.

I don’t usually have time for that so I usually just drizzle chocolate over the top. (Still delicious but probably lack some of the authenticity that makes a samoa a samoa.)

Regardless, they are fantastically tasty and get gobbled up every time I serve them.

Even though the recipe uses pre-packaged caramels (you can always make your own caramel), the recipe is still a bit time consuming since the coconut needs to be toasted (don’t skip this step!) and the shortbread base bakes before adding the caramel coconut layer.

I still think they were worth it. They are a great change-up to the standard old brownie and have a great presentation quality! Go try them today!

Samoas Bars

Yield: 24 Bars (9X13-inch pan)

Prep Time: 35 minutes mins

Cook Time: 40 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

5 stars (2 ratings)

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Ingredients

Cookie Base:

• ½ cup (106 g) sugar
• ¾ cup (170 g) softened butter
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups (284 g) all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Topping:

• 3 cups (255 g) shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
• 12 ounces good-quality chewy caramels (see note)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 10 ounces (283 g) dark or semisweet chocolate (see note)

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Instructions 

• For the crust, preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepared pan and press into an even layer.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.
• For the topping, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden (mine took about 25 minutes). Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
• Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on 50% power for 1-2 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer (I kind of had to use my hands on this part to get it into an even layer).
• Let topping set until cooled. When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it’s easy to get it through the topping).
• Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish. Alternately, you can omit the step to dip the base of the brownie in chocolate and simply drizzle the melted chocolate on the top of the bars (you won’t need the full 10 oz. if you choose this step). Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Notes

Caramels: I used one 14 oz. package of the Kraft brand.

Chocolate: chocolate chips are ok to use – I didn’t coat the base of the brownies in chocolate so I only used 1 cup semisweet chips to drizzle on top.

Author: Mel

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Method: Bake

Serving: 1 Bar, Calories: 279kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 15g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 24mg, Sodium: 169mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 25g

Recommended Products

9X13-inch Metal Baking Pan

Electric Hand Mixer

Silicone Spatula

Recipe Source: adapted from Baking Bites

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