Homemade Samoas

Cookie Base (from Cakespy)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk or cream

Caramel Base (from Epicurious)
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel*
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

Cooktime: your whole darned day
Yields: 2-3 dozen cookies

1. Toast coconut. Spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet, and bake for 20-30 minutes at 325 degrees. This can take a while, but be sure

2. Beat sugars and butter. Separately, whisk together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to creamed butter and sugar. If the mixture is dry, add the milk until the dough is soft. Form the dough into a disk, and refrigerate till firm. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 350 for 12-16 minutes, rotating sheets halfway. Allow to cool completely.

3. Don't do what I did for the caramel. See additional information below.

4. Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. I put the chocolate into a ziploc bag, then piped it out.

Toasted coconut; sugar and scalded heavy cream waiting in the background


Cutting out my cookies


Cookies are baked! (They spread a lot, surprisingly. I was not pleased.)


Sugar and corn syrup bubbling away.


Cream and butter added! Action shot.


Mid-decoration.



I have to be honest. I don't think this potchke is worth it. It took almost an entire Sunday, and while delicious, the cookies tasted nothing like samoas. The cookie base tasted more like a buttery sugar cookie-- I had anticipated something more shortbread-y. Next time I'll just go ahead and make a classic shortbread!

Here's the other thing. 99.99% of people on the internet who have made Samoas from scratch did NOT make their own caramel. I mean, what's the point if you're just going to melt store-bought caramels? So I committed to making my own caramel topping, and it just totally bombed. Maybe I mis-measured my cream, maybe my thermometer is off, but my creamy caramel topping hardened into toffee.

I finally polished these cookies off the other day. I came to really enjoy them and eventually overlooked the fact they were nowhere near Samoas.