T-Rex Samoa Cookies

If I could eat one cookie for the rest of my life it would be a Samoa Cookie. So since Girl Scouts come once a year and I love to support them. I also want to make some cookies for my Samoa addiction.

With my Autism I love baking and find comfort in the chemistry aspect of it, I also love dinosaurs too! So best of both worlds, why not make a Tyrannosaurus rex Samoa Cookie?!?!?

Yields: apx 24 Trex cookies

Supplies

Tools:
2 Mixing Bowls
1-2 Baking sheets
Hand mixer OR Stand mixer
Soft spatulas for scraping
Microwave to melt chocolate & Caramel OR if you want to stove top melt a medium pot and heat proof bowl
Plates or cutting board for decorating and setting in freezer briefly to “set” chocolate
Wax paper
Pam or baking spray
Spoons for decorating (nothing fancy really)
Plastic wrap
Trex or any awesome cookie cutter!
((Optional)) piping bag for chocolate or ziplock bag


Cookie Dough:
1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour (a bit extra for dusting and rolling dough)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk (even lactose free milk works too!)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract



Carmel, Coconut & Chocolate:
2 cups soft caramel (I got Werther's soft caramel any works but does need to be soft)
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream for caramel
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups coconut shreds/flakes
1 cup chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons heavy cream for chocolate

Step 1: Baking the Tyrannosaurus Rex: Cream Butter & Sugar

Alrighty! Time to start the dough!

Before we get started start heating oven to 350 degrees.

Grab a mixing bowl and Hand mixer or Stand mixer.
We are going to add 1 cup of soft butter or softened if you need to warm from the fridge, and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix till creamy minimal to no lumps and resembles mashed potatoes.

If you accidentally melt the butter a little when getting it soft no worries still comes out great.

Step 2: Mixing Dry Ingredients

In a separate bowl sift together Flour, Salt, and Baking Powder. So if you do t have a sifter you can whisk together the ingredients with a whisk or fork.

Step 3: Finishing the Dough

First grab the creamy butter/sugar bowl and mixer. We are going to slowly pour the flour mix into the butter/sugar. Mixing a bit at a time. It will look crumbly and that’s fine!

And once all mixed, add vanilla extract and milk. Mix for maybe a minute to ensure fully mixed. Will look less crumbly.

For this dough we do need to refrigerate it so when we use the cookie cutter the dough cuts well and can be picked up without breaking apart. So ball up the dough and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 mins.

Step 4: Baking the Tyrannosaurus Rex

Alright so we are halfway done!!!

Make sure your oven is 350 degrees!

Yes grab the dough from they fridge and it will be nice and firm. Make a nice clean space on your counter for rolling the dough. Dust counter with flour and dust rolling pin with flour. If you don’t have a rolling pin.. honestly this dough is easy to work with, you can use your hands to press it out and if it’s not completely even that’s perfectly fine because it gets topped with coconut and caramel!

Roll/press dough out to 1/4 inch thick. If you make it too thin it can burn and cook too fast. And feel free to work with small chunks of dough at a time if you are limited to space.

Cut out the Trex shapes and place on greased wax paper in baking sheets. The dough does not expand so you can place them close together to maximize usage of surface space.

Bake for 10-13 mins. I am in high altitude : Colorado so I can bake mine at 10-11 mins for a very light golden brown on the edge of cookies. The dough may not change color fully but be careful to pull out when you see the edges turn light golden tan/brown. And set aside to cool.

Step 5: Toasting the Coconut

So this might be a first and seems intimidating but it’s sooo easy :)

Grab your shredded or flakes of coconut and spread out evenly over a baking sheet. So with this the coconut browns from the contact with the pan not the top. So every 3 mins stir the coconut for about 9-12 mins till golden brown like cooked hash browns.

Once done set aside in bowl to cool.

Step 6: Making the Caramel & Chocolate

So this was a bit more time sensitive since the chocolate and caramel cool down and can solidify. (I was unable to get pictures of this process but is super easy)I would suggest starting with the chocolate and dipping the cookies first then making the caramel.

So in the microwave for 15 second increments or on a double boil with pot of water on medium heat with heat proof bowl: melt 1 cup of chocolate and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. If you want a firm hard chocolate on the cookie you can leave out the heavy cream.

Once melted with no lumps grab a small plate for dipping the cookies. Dip the cookies in and cover bottom completely (it’s ok if it gets messy). And set on wax paper on cutting board. After filling the board place in fridge or freezer to set chocolate.

Now the caramel!

In microwave or double boiler melt caramel, salt, and heavy cream together. Will come out smooth and creamy looking and set bowl aside so we can decorate the cookies!

Step 7: Decorating Your Tyrannosaurus Rex

So now we have the cookies dipped in Chocolate with some left over chocolate and caramel and toasted coconut.

With cookies on a plate or cutting board we are going to spoon a little bit of caramel on the cookie. Don’t cover the whole surface because this will be the glue to hold the caramel/coconut. But cover most of surface.

With remainder caramel should be 3/4 to 1/2 of caramel made, add to coconut and mix with fork or spoon. We need to work fast since the caramel with be hard to work with. So grab marble sized coconut globs and distribute as evenly as possible covering a majority of the cookie. The coconut can be thicker in some areas but as long as you have decent coverage.

Lastly!

Either with a spoon or piping bag, drizzle chocolate over the coconut. And feel free to get creative if you want to draw eyes and a smile or if you do heart cookies you can dress them up too!

Enjoy and remember to store them wrapped in plastic wrap good for up to 2 weeks.