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Samoas Scones

The scones are fairly plain on their own, slightly sweet and with a nice buttery flavor. They are topped with a combination of caramel and coconut, then dipped in and drizzled with semisweet chocolate. It is recommend to either use homemade caramel sauce or an ice cream topping-type of caramel because you want the scones to still be easy to bite into without the caramel on top getting too hard (better too gooey with these than too firm!). Prepare them about an hour or two before you want to serve them to give the chocolate time to set up, or pop them into the fridge for a couple of minutes before serving if you are cutting it close, timing-wise.

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces
3/4 – 1 cup milk
6-oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup prepared caramel sauce (store bought or use recipe below)
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in chilled butter and cut it into the flour mixture until no pieces larger than a pea remain visible (this can be done in a food processor).
Add in 3/4 cup milk and stir to combine. Gradually add in remaining 1/4 cup milk until dough comes together into a ball.
Divide dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and flatten into a disc about 1/2-inch thick. Cut into quarters and place on baking sheet. Repeat with second piece of dough.
Bake for 16-20 minutes, until scones are a light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl. Use a small knife or spatula to spread a thin layer onto the bottom of each scone. Place coated scones on a cool baking sheet lined with a piece of wax or parchment paper to set up.
Combine caramel and shredded coconut in a small bowl. Spread about 3 tbsp of the caramel and coconut mixture onto each scone and drizzle with remaining melted chocolate. Allow chocolate drizzle to set for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 8 scones.

Homemade Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
7 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, water and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until syrup turns dark gold. Working carefully, stir in cream and vanilla. Caramel will start to steam and harden when you add the cream – continue to cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until caramel is smooth. Transfer caramel to a refrigerator-safe container and cool. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Note: You may have extra caramel sauce if you use it for the scones, so feel free to use it as a topping for ice cream, etc.

Homemade Samoas Recipe:

First, you'll need the basic shortbread recipe:

• 228g (1 cup)  butter, room temperature
• 115g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 250g (2 cups) all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (1oz) milk

Cream together your butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly add this to the butter mixture.  

Finally, at low speed, add in the milk and vanilla. 

Separate the dough into halves and wrap in plastic or store in tupperware.  Refrigerate until the dough is as firm as a stick of butter. 

Now is the time to preheat your oven to 350F (180C)  and line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.  Remember that you can re-use parchment sheets between batches!

Once your dough is firm enough to roll out without making a big mess (oh you'll figure that out pretty quickly), roll dough on lightly floured surface.
 

Lots of places will tell you to roll it out between sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap.  Please, dear readers, save yourself the heartache, and do it the way Grandma did.  This dough is made to be soft enough to withstand the incorporation of more flour during this phase.
 

Once your dough is rolled to about 1/8" - 1/4" thickness, use a cookie cutter to cut out whatever shapes your heart desires.  Re-roll the scraps and repeat.

As you move the cut cookies onto your cookie tray, you will again be grateful you used a floured surface instead of waxed paper.  This stuff gets sticky fast!

Bake your batches of cookies one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet 180 degrees, halfway through baking.  This ensures that all the cookies turn the same color instead of getting browner in the hotter parts of your oven.

Cool your cookies on the sheet for about 5 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack.  Don't have a wire rack?  That's ok.  But think about getting one - they make all your baking look cooler.  

Let cookie sheets cool before putting new cookies to be baked on the

For the topping, you'll need:

• 225g (3 cups) shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
• 15-oz soft caramels 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp milk
• 8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate

While the dough is refrigerating, preheat your oven to 350F (180C).

Toast the shredded coconut on a baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.   Let cool while shaping and baking cookies.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface.

Cut out the shapes with a biscuit cutter, or two differently-size round cutters, or a small round cutter and a straw.  You get the idea!

Bake your batches of cookies one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet 180 degrees, halfway through baking. This ensures that all the cookies turn the same color instead of getting browner in the hotter parts of your oven.

Let cookie sheets cool before putting new cookies to be baked on them

Place your caramels, milk and salt in a microwaveable bowl and nuke for 1 minute at a time, stopping to stir, until nice and melty (3-4minutes)

If you're using homemade caramels, you can reduce the amount of milk and microwave time.

If you are using hard caramels, increase the milk.

Stir the toasted coconut into the caramel mixture.

Using a knife, an offset spatula, or whatever device floats your boat, spread the caramel mixture on top of your cookies.  Be generous.

Some of your cookies may not be structurally sound enough to support the force of having caramel and coconut applied to them.  My guess is not enough baking time.  Do not abandon these cookies, dear friends!  Remember, they started out life as delicious shortbread.  They can remain in your life as the cookies you secretly eat when no one's watching!  Or as  your "test" cookies to try out different ratios of toppings!  These broken cookies are a blessing.

The only thing missing from these bad boys is a good dose of chocolate!

Lay out a sheet of waxed paper for your cookies to rest on once they're all chocolate-botttomed.

Chop up your chocolate and microwave it in 30 second bursts, stirring between each, until nice and melty.

Dip the bottoms of your cookies into the chocolate and place on waxed paper.  

Use the remaining melted chocolate to drizzle over top of the cookies once they're all dipped.  A spoon works for this, but a piping bag or the corner snipped off a plastic baggie makes 'em prettier.

That's it!  Store in an air tight container for best results.