Vegan Samoa Cookies {Girl Scout Copycat Caramel DeLites}

Ingredients

To make these homemade vegan Samoas, you only need a few ingredients and components. This recipe uses a homemade vegan caramel (linked below) but you can of course use a store-bought alternative if you’d like. Here’s what you’ll need to make these cookies:

• Homemade Vegan Coconut Milk Caramel
• Shredded Coconut
• Vegan Butter
• Granulated White Sugar or Coconut Sugar
• All-purpose Flour
• Pure Vanilla Extract
• Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips or Semi-Sweet Chocolate
• Baking Powder

​Helpful Equipment

• Cookie Sheet or Baking Sheet
• Parchment Paper
• Cooling Rack or Wire Rack

Step By Step Instructions

Make the Vegan Caramel Sauce

STEP 1: Prep the caramel sauce according to this recipe’s instructions. 

📌 TIP: This homemade salted caramel sauce is made with coconut milk, granulated sugar, and a bit of vegan butter. Caramel sauce was always one of those recipes that used to intimidate me, but this recipe is quite easy. Not to mention delicious. Be sure to let the caramel come to room temperature before applying it to the cookies.

Make the Cookie Base

STEP 2:  Cream the vegan butter and sugar together to make the shortbread base. Then, add the vanilla extract.

STEP 3: Next whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

STEP 4: Stir the vegan butter mixture and the dry ingredients together until they form a crumbly texture (see the picture above). To make the dough into a smooth ball, you may need to use your hands at this point to gently knead the dough. The warmth from your hands will melt the vegan butter slightly, helping the dough come together better. 

📌 TIP: If you’re finding that your dough is very soft & difficult to work with, refrigerate it for about 10 minutes. If you choose to refrigerate the dough longer than 30 minutes, make sure to let the dough sit on the counter for about 15 minutes prior to rolling it out. I’ve found that rolling out the dough when it’s very cold can make it crack easily.

Shaping the Cookies

STEP 5: To shape the cookies, roll out the dough into a thin sheet, about ⅛” to ¼” thick. Using a 1-2” circular cookie cutter cut out the cookies. Then cut out the centers with a smaller cookie cutter.

STEP 6: Next, place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake them for 10 minutes.

📌 TIP: Be sure not to over-bake the cookies. They will appear slightly soft when coming straight out of the oven, but they will firm up once cool. 

Assembling the Girl Scout Cookies

STEP 7: To toast the coconut, spread it in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast coconut for 5 minutes at 350F. It should be just barely golden brown when done.

STEP 8: In a medium-sized bowl, mix ¾ of caramel sauce with coconut. I recommend starting with about 1/2 of a cup of caramel sauce and incrementally add more until all of the coconut is coated in caramel.

STEP 9: Dip the bottoms of each cookie into the melted chocolate. Then, set the cookies bottom side down onto a parchment-lined tray.

📌 TIP: If you’d like the chocolate to set up faster, you can pop the cookies in the freezer for 5 minutes before moving onto the next step.

STEP 10: Once the chocolate has set up slightly, spread 1 tsp of cooled caramel on top of each cookie. This should be a thin, even layer- just enough to help the coconut mixture stick to the tops of the cookies. 

STEP 11: While the caramel is still wet on the tops of the cookies, press the coconut caramel mixture onto each cookie. Top everything off with a dark chocolate drizzle and these copycat Girl Scout Cookies are ready to enjoy! 

Serving & Storage Suggestions

These homemade Vegan Samoas (Caramel DeLites) are the perfect combination of crispy shortbread cookie, rich chocolate, fresh toasted coconut, and homemade caramel sauce.

If you’d like to jazz these up even more, feel free to add a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top. I swear they taste just like the real thing and the best part is that they’re completely vegan friendly. 

I recommend storing these cookies in the fridge or the freezer to keep the caramel and chocolate firm and fresh! Let them come to room temperature before enjoying!