Girl Scout Caramel/Coconut Cookie bars!

So I love having fun with recipes and my niece Barbie (who has been on the front lines this whole time, working at a local hospital in crisis pregnancy...) posted a recipe online for Samoa's, those delicious chocolate/coconut/caramel cookies that I love fresh or frozen, so putting them in the freezer is NO DETERRENT on this one! The original recipe was from "Grandma's Thing" and I tweaked it to this version.

This starts with a shortcake cookie base. I use that base for my toffee crunch bars and the "scrumptious" bars recipe I was given decades ago (Yes, I was VERY YOUNG then.) :) which is basically a chocolate cheesecake bar.... and so stinkin' good!

But let's start with this one:

Shortcake cookie base is wonderful for lots of things, and you can use it to make a fruit-topped cookie cake, or a deep dish fruit "pie" with cookie bottom and layered with strawberries, kiwi, bananas, raspberries, blueberries (any and all berries work) and then you "glaze" it all with warmed up apple jelly and paint that on with a pastry brush to keep the fruit from oxidizing. It also "glues" the fruit together gently so that you can cut slices... kind of! I used to make these at holidays when I was working in the commercial bakery. No melons, though. Too much moisture. You want fruits that are low moisture whole fruits (excepting the strawberries and kiwi) and it doesn't hurt to paint the short bread "cookie" bottom with the jelly to keep it from getting soggy. I bake the crust in a pie pan and build it right in there, too. This is a great treat for summer parties where something fresh from the fridge makes folks smile!

Now back to these!

Caramel Coconut Cookie Bars:

For Shortbread:

2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and egg until fluffy. Add flour and salt. Mix. Mixture may be crumbly. That's okay. Press into a 13 x 9 pan lined with parchment paper. (You can do it without the parchment, and just spray the inside of the pan, but the parchment helps give you a clean-cutting cookie later)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.... cookie should be pale and edges beginning to brown lightly.

Remove from oven. Cool completely before adding topping:


3 cups toasted coconut
1 jar thick caramel ice cream topping (12 to 16 oz.)
1 10 oz. package chocolate melting wafers or dark chocolate chips.

Toasting coconut:

Lay out the 3 cups of coconut on a cookie sheet, preheat oven to 250 degrees and toast the coconut in the oven until it's golden brown. You can stir it once or twice, but that's not even usually necessary.

Mix coconut with thick caramel topping. Spread onto cooled cookie base. Cut into squares with pizza cutter or sharp knife. (Thin blade of pizza cutter worked great.)

Melt chocolate chips/wafers over warm water (double boiler style) or gently in microwave

Dip each square into chocolate.  (This is the only thing I'd change in what I did, I tipped them over to chill them, and they would have been fine with the chocolate side down.... Once it's chilled, the foil peels right off. )

Chill. Then drizzle chocolate lines across top of each square.

These are so good that I don't even have words for them.

I am so serious.

Every church social or shower or picnic will love, love, love these.

You will be the belle of the ball.

The cream of the crop.

The frosting on the cake.

The cherry on the sundae.

Seriously, this is a points-getter!!!!!

Heading out to Finn's kindergarten graduation ... There's a handful of kids in his class, so we're able to get together for it in the big gymnasium and obey the rules. The Mighty Finn graduates!

It's so funny to think about him graduating from kindergarten. His mom and had so much fun making books about this little fellow who has his own way about seeing-- and living-- life!

And my keyboard got accidentally fried this week (two cats, don't ask) and so I'm on the computer that doesn't have a bunch of stuff, including pictures.... but I found this one, Finn at a wedding with a fancy glass of ginger ale!!!! Oh the joy of simple things reflected in the face of a child!

Award-winning, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves being part of a big family, and thinks that life is way too short to be taken for granted, and way too long to be a jerk. She is happy when people agree with her on that. Friend her on facebook, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email her directly at loganherne@gmail.com She loves to hear from people!