Fegan Baking

homemade “samoas”

remember when i admitted i was a “fegan” - a fake vegan? this is one of those times that something super yummy comes along and i just can’t resist baking it, even if veganizing it proves impossible. it’s the caramel that ruins these for vegans

but an imitation girl scout cookie?! i seriously couldn’t help myself

HOMEMADE “SAMOAS”

1 c. margarine
1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
coconut
chewy caramel
dark chocolate

cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. add flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla, mixing well with each addition. the dough’s consistency should end up like cookie dough - somewhat sticky, but not so sticky you can’t reasonably work with it

roll the dough out on a flat surface, using flour as needed to prevent stickiness. a word to the wise - don’t roll it out too thin, or your cookies will break easily!

as per the suggestion of abigailmarguerite [http://abigailmarguerite.tumblr.com/], i used a glass to cut cookies about 1 1/2 inches in diameter

i just used a knife to cut out the circular centers

bake at 350* for about 9 minutes

let these cool completely! if they’re not completely cool when you add topping, disaster will strike

as for the topping! toast the coconut (i used about half of a 12 oz. bag) evenly spread on a baking sheet at 200* for about 35 min. i checked on it every few minutes and stirred it up though, which i recommend because everyone’s oven is different

once the coconut is a slight toasty brown, microwave-melt a 12 oz. bag of caramels (microwaving about 30 seconds at a time, stirring as you go). once completely melted, mix in the toasted caramel

this step of making samoas requires an enormous amount of patience. as the caramel cools, it gets increasingly difficult to work with. i ended up primarily using my hands to shape the coconut-caramel topping on each round cookie

finally, melt the chocolate (again, i used the microwave, using 30-second increments and lots of stirring). dip the bottom of each cookie in the melted chocolate, placing it on a sheet of parchment after dipping. once all cookies are dipped, use remaining chocolate to create classic samoa designs on top of the cookies. let cool completely

and there you have it! cookies that look convincingly like girl scouts’ samoas, but taste even better ;)

to be honest, i would only recommend trying to make these cookies if you have a fair amount of time to dedicate to them. while the recipe is pretty easy, it has a lot of time-consuming steps, and as i said, the caramel and chocolate construction portion of the recipe requires a LOT of patience. that being said, they were really delicious! and well-worth the trouble. my roommate, who is a giant fan of samoas, approved the slightly different taste