Samoa Girl Scout Cookie Bars

adapted from Baking Bites

These cookies are Girl Scout Cookies-gone to the bar. Hahaha. I crack myself up. I gave these to Mr. J as and I-owe-you at Christmas when I had lots of cooking before our holiday celebration with each family, and had plenty of holiday cookies around. I finally made ’em and they were a baking success!

Ingredients for Shortbread Base:

½ cup sugar
¾ cup butter, softened
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt

Directions for Shortbread Base:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray/flour/line with parchment a 9×13 baking pan.
Using a stand or hand mixer, cream sugar and butter together.
Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
Gradually add flour and salt, mixing until crumbly.

Press doughy mixture into the pan and make a few holes with a fork.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. (Note: the base should be somewhat cooled before topping and topping cannot be prepped in advance to using it. Also note: I used a little pan but it was too thick.)

Ingredients for the Topping:

3 cups shredded cocoanut
1 bag wrapped caramels (16 oz) unwrapped
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup milk
8 oz chocolate chips (or drizzle with chocolate sauce)

Directions for the Topping:

While shortbread base is cooking (or cooling if you prepped it in advance), put cocoanut onto a cookie sheet (with sides/edges) and spread into an even layer.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, or so, until evenly golden brown.

While coconut is toasting, start unwrapping caramels.
Melt caramels over a double-boiler or in the microwave. Stir occasionally.
When partially melted, add milk and salt.

Stir toasted coconut and caramels together.

Spread coconut & caramel topping onto the shortbread base.

Allow to cool somewhat before drizzling melted chocolate chips or chocolate syrup.

These are not exactly as tricky as they might first seem. I’m not a baking connoisseur, so I’ve listed steps so you’re ready for the next one. I stuck to the recipe (I never deviate when baking) except that I used a 9×9 pan and the shortbread was wayyyy too thick. It didn’t seem like it until I baked it and it puffed a lot.

The flavor was good and as bars, they were much less work than shaping cookies etc. These guys won’t exactly fool anyone into thinking they are sold by your local girl scout, but a 4-something a box, you could make a LOT of pans of these bars for that price.