Weekend Sweets: Samoas Knockoffs

I made these great Samoas bars for a bbq this week and they were a huge hit! Brian loves samoas, but girl scout cookies only come around once a year, so hooray for knockoffs. I got this recipe off of C and J's Good Grub. They have a quite a few steps, but they aren't really hard to make, so go ahead and make some!

Ingredients:
Cookie Crust:
1/2 C sugar
3/4 C butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
2 C flour
1/4 t salt


Topping:
3 C shredded coconut
14 oz. package of chewy caramels
1/4 t salt
3 T milk
1/2 bag of dark chocolate chips for drizzle

Step 1: We're going to make the crust first. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 pan. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly (the dough does not need to come together). Pour crumbly dough into greased pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Step 2: Now for the coconut! Set your oven to 300. Spread your 3 C coconut on a parchment paper lined baking pan and toast for about 25 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so you're going to want to "stir" the coconut until it's golden brown. Let cool and set aside.

Step 3: Caramel! Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. We're going to microwave the caramels until they melt. I put them in 30 seconds at a time and stir in between. This took me about 2 1/2 minutes total.

Step 4: When your caramel is ready, stir in toasted coconut with a spatula. When it's well mixed, plop it onto the cookie base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer (I used a sheet of parchment paper to press the mixture into an even layer). Let topping set until cooled. When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter. Lay out your bars on a sheet of wax or parchment paper to prepare for drizzling.

Step 5: Now we're going to make our chocolate drizzle. Put your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals stirring in between each. Once the chocolate is melted, scoop it into a small ziploc bag and seal it up. Snip of a tiny bit off one of the corners and use it to drizzle your chocolate on top. Let the chocolate set and serve! Make sure to store these in an airtight container. Enjoy!