Tis the season for Girlscouts to start going door to door and selling cookies, thus breaking everyone's new year's resolution. Thin Mints has "thin" in the name, so it's probably okay for your diet, right?

Unfortunately, there are many of us who do not know a local Girlscout or have trouble tracking one down (much like Scottish folklore, Brownies are hard to find!). As great it is to support the troops, sometimes you need your Girlscout cookie fix all year round.

My favorite type of Girlscout cookie are samoas- despite the many name changes, they keep their same caramel, coconut, and chocolatey goodness. Here's how you can make them at home*

*Unfortunately you do not get a Scout badge for completing this ible.

Step 1: Ingridients

For this recipe you will need:

Cookie:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks salted butter (you can use unsalted, I used salted and used less salt later)
1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons milk
a pinch of salt

Garnish:

8oz caramel candies
8oz dark chocolate chips
2 cups shredded coconut
3 tablespoons milk

This makes about 10-12 cookies

Step 2: Cream Together Butter and Sugar

Mix the butter and the sugar in a large bowl and cream until the mixture looks fluffy.

The butter should be room temperature, but I've found that you can put the bowl in a warm oven for a minute to soften the butter in the mixture. Just make sure it doesn't get melty!

Pro tip: Not necessarily for this recipe, but often you can save your butter wrappers to grease your cookie sheets after!

Step 3: Whisk Together Dry Ingridients

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Basically, if it's white and not the coconut, throw it in the bowl!

Step 4: Combine

Apprixmately 1/3rd at a time, mix your dry ingridients into your sugar butter mix.

I made a mistake with my bowl size so I mixed the other way (sugar/butter into dry ingridients)-- either way, it doesn't matter!

Mix until your mixture looks sandy with large/medium chunks.

Add in the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. The mixture should still look chunky and sandy.

Step 5: Chill Out

Divide the dough into two balls. The dough should almost be sticky in your hands and very malleable.

Flatten the dough balls a little so they resemble disks, and then wrap them in plastic wrap. Chill the two disks for two hours.

Pro tip: Prepare your plastic wrap before you dip your hands into the dough

Pro tip: After about 1.5 hrs into chilling, preheat your oven to 350. There's no need to preheat at the beginning when you won't be using it for awhile.

Step 6: Cut It Out

After your dough has chilled, roll it out on a countertop or other flat surface such that the dough is about 1/4" thick. Cut your cookies into circles and then cut out the middle.

Really you can cut your cookies out in whatever shape you want with whatever you want. For the sake of the copycat, I am making my cookies to look like the Girlscout version. I have made this exact recipe as bars before and it's just as delicious!

Place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pro tip: For shortbread cookies like these, underbaking is always better!

Step 7: Toast the Coconut

While your cookies are baking, place the two cups of shredded coconut on another cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

In the same 350 degree oven, toast the coconut for 10 minutes (conveniently the same time as your cookies). Check on the coconut every 3/4 minutes though and toss it around a bit so it doesn't burn. In the end, it should be a nice uniform golden brown.

Step 8: Melt the Caramel

In a double boiler, place your caramel candies and the three tablespoons of milk in the top half, with water boiling down below.

If you don't have a double boiler, it's easy to improvise like I did here! I fit a bowl into a saucepan filled with water and then boiled the water.

Mix the caramel until it has a creamy and smooth texture.

Step 9: Lather and Rinse

At this point, your cookies should be out of the oven and cooling, and your coconut should be toasted!

Take approximately 3/4 of the coconut and mix it in with the caramel. Set aside the cookie sheet with the rest of the toasted coconut, you'll need that in a minute.

When your cookies are cooled, scoop out your caramel and coconut mixture and lather it onto the cookies. Watch out if you use your fingers to clean up edges because the caramel is still very hot!

If you use more caramel and end up with a more soupy mixture, it is possible to dunk your cookies in it.

Dip your now lathered cookie into the toasted coconut for a little extra coconut goodness.

When all cookies are done, rinse out your double boiler.

Step 10: Dip and Drizzle

In the same double boiler (that's why we rinsed it!), dump your dark chocolate. Let the chocolate melt, stirring constantly. Chocolate burns so easily and the smell of burnt chocolate is not something you're going to want lingering around the house.

When the chocolate is melted, dip your cookie in the bowl. Using a spoon, make sure you have all the edges covered and drop the cookie on a piece of parchment paper.

Pro tip: You can use the same parchment paper you used for baking!

When all your cookies have been dipped, take a fork and drizzle the remaining chocolate on top. I often struggle with the drizzle, and definitely lose some pretty points here.

Let the chocolate col and harden for 30 minutes.

Step 11: Enjoy!

If you haven't already stuffed yourself from licking chocolate covered, you can now enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Well, I suppose not fruit, but at least you have cookies!

You can add more caramel, chocolate, or even other variations to this favorite cookie such as:

Mocha powder
Hazelnut drizzle
Peanutbutter drizzle
Whatever else you think of- I'm sure it will be delicious!

Scouts honor, these cookies are great!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Introduction: Copycat Girlscout Samoas!