Samoa Bark

Who doesn't love Girl Scout Cookies? I wish I could say that I didn't. Especially when I have been known (on multiple occasions) to eat an entire box of them on the spot. I like the lemon ones. The shortbread ones are pretty good. I won't turn down a Thin Mint, but I don't get the hype with those. But the one that makes me super excited to see little kids standing infront of grocery stores selling cookies? Samoas.

There is nothing about that cookie I don't love. And since the boxes I ordered haven't come in yet, I decided to make this samoa bark that I saw on Pinterest. I was so excited with how easy this was. And as I melted chocolate and caramel, I couldn't wait to dive into these.

And when I finally ate one? Utter disappointment. Obviously these are not the actual cookies. It's an easy way to incorporate all of the flavors that we know and love and get something with the same flavors. However. It doesn't turn out well, and in my opinion these could have been delicious with one simple switch: milk chocolate in place of semi-sweet. The chocolate part of this bark (which is a pretty substantial part of them) is bitter, and it overpowers everything else going on here. These were so easy to make, so I'll probably try them again with some melted milk chocolate. I really do think that would make a world of difference.

Samoa Bark

(Recipe from Cookies & Cups)

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces of good quality milk chocolate; divided (12 ounces for the base, 2 ounces for drizzle)
• 14 ounce bag of caramels
• 1 box of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies
• 3 cups of sweetened, flaked coconut
• 3 T. of water

Directions:

1. Line a 9x13 baking sheet with foil and set aside.
2. Chop the chocolate into very small pieces and melt using either a double boiler or in the microwave. (I'm lazy and didn't want to wash any additional dishes, so I used the microwave.)
3. Smooth the melted chocolate into the bottom of the lined pan.
4. Working quickly, place the cookies in the warm chocolate. (I'm OCD and lined them up perfectly, and had 4 cookies remaining.) When finished, put the pan in the freezer to set while you work on the next few steps.
5. Either in a large, non-stick skillet or in an oven on 350 degrees, toast up your coconut. Keep an eye on it, it starts to brown quickly and you do not want it to burn.
6. Place all of your unwrapped caramels in a sauce pan (on medium-low heat) with the water and stir until the carramel has just melted. Immediately fold in the toasted cococut.
7. Remove the pan from the freezer and spread the caramel-coconut mixture over the chocolate & cookies.
8. Melt those last two ounces of chocolate and drizzle over the top. Let set in the refridgerator or freezer for about five minutes.