Saturday, July 30, 2011

I want Sa-mo...a

I've been fairly absent, lately, and I haven't even been catching up on my most favorite blogs. As some of you may know, I graduate on Friday!! I cannot wait, but it's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Between traveling, working, going to school, and dealing with my car break-in, I haven't had a lot of spare time for writing. Any spare moments I've had have been spent with my friends and Anthony, and I think that's how it should be. 
Anyway, I'll be back to writing my DEEP, THOUGHTFUL, INSIGHTFUL posts, soon... ;) ha
But until then, here is my very successful recipe for Samoas/Caramel Delights that I made for Anthony's birthday. They were a huge hit, but I cannot take the credit for them. One of my new favorite sites, Baking Bites, had this recipe, and I found it, thanks to Pinterest. So here you go! Everything written below here was copy and pasted from the site.
Homemade Samoas Bars
Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make 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 prepapred 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.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. 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. 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 high for 3-4 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. 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.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.
Okay, there you go! I hope you liked the recipe. I promise that it's worth baking!






6 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations!!! Whoo hooo time to parteee! At least time to celebrate.

The cookies look dynamite!


Lillian-Thinking Out Loud

Anonymous said...

Hooray! Congrats! And those Samoas look heavenly...nom nom nom.

sorry, I have to go clean off the drool on my keyboard now ;)

Gwiddle said...

Graduating? HOW exciting! I wish you all the best:) Those cookies look yummy! I've missed you girl! I hope your doing wonderful.

♥ Nadine said...

Ah, graduation... That's a bit exciting, not? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything works out very well. :)

And those cookies look faboosh. They make my mouth watering... Thanks for sharing.

Don't worry for not being here regularly - that happens to the best of us, not?

XOXO.

Janette said...

Those look amazingggg! And yes, you need to post more! Post more pictures of you! You're so pretty! Come on! For me???

Janette, the Jongleur

*^_^* said...

Wow! Delightful and yummy!
Thanks, Liz! :D