Healthier Samoas

Submitted by PumpKIM

"My boyfriend and I were talking about how much we used to love the Girl Scout's Samoas, and seeing as we're both health nuts, I want to experiment with making these more nutritionally sound."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 42

ingredients

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1⁄2 cup sugar substitute
• 2 cups almond flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons water
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 12 ounces sugar-free caramel topping
• 8 ounces dark chocolate

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together margarine and sugar substitute. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and water, adding in the water as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky. The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.
3. Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough.
4. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set.
5. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Take oven temperature down to 300.
7. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
8. Place caramel sauce in a large microwave-safe bowl and fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
9. Spread the topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie.
10. While topping sets up, 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 cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper.
11. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
12. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.