My roommate and great friend Laurel tried this recipe for 4-ingredient samoas by the blog Eating Bird Food and was generous enough to share a cookie with me, so I am giving credit where credit is absolutely due! As soon as I tried one of these cookies, I knew these were going to be one of my favorite snacks; they were so delicious! Eating Bird Food lists 4 ingredients, however, I did not have coconut oil on hand. As well as the fact that I wanted to make the recipe even healthier than it is, and coconut oil is actually one of the highest oils in saturated (bad) fat, so I chose to skip this ingredient and make it a 3 ingredient recipe instead, and the results were amazing! I thought I would share my process of making them if you would like to enjoy these tasty & healthy cookies that taste so much like the original, and in my opinion, far better than the Girl Scout version.
Ingredients:
1 cup coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) - the original recipe calls for unsweetened, however I used sweetened coconut, and just noted it takes less time to toast in the oven!
1 cup pitted dates (I just used the generic brand.)
1/3 cup dark chocolate (I used dark chocolate chips but you can cut up a dark chocolate bar if you would prefer.)
Equipment: cookie sheet/pan, parchment paper, bowl to hold "dough,” spoon, food processor, microwave safe dish/bowl to melt chocolate in.
Instructions:
Pre-heat your oven to 400°F while you spread your 1 cup of shredded coconut onto a baking sheet to toast. Mine took about 3 minutes, but unsweetened varieties may take up to 10 minutes. You know it is done when the coconut is a light golden brown color. Just make sure to keep an eye on it, as it will go from perfectly golden brown to burnt real quick!
After the coconut is toasted, add your 1 cup of dates and 1 cup of toasted coconut into a food processor. I just used my ninja smoothie maker, but any blender that has a pulse feature should work! Pulse the two together until the mixture develops a dough-like appearance/texture!
3. Remove the "dough" from the ninja (or whatever food processor you are using) and roll the dough into 1 tablespoon size balls. Then to make them more "samoa" looking, I used a meat thermometer to poke a hole in the middle, and then flatten the ball down into more of a cookie form!
4. Place all cookies on a cookie sheet or pan lined with parchment paper and transfer to the freezer to harden for about 10 - 15 minutes.
5. While the cookies are hardening in the freezer, add your 1/3 cup of chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl and melt for about 30 seconds, or until the chocolate is fully melted.
6. Grab your tray of cookies from the freezer after about 10 - 15 minutes and dip each one in the melted chocolate to coat the bottom. Place the cookies on the parchment paper-lined pan once again, and use your remaining chocolate to drizzle over the top of the cookies. I did this with a spoon, with some cookies coming out cuter than others, ha!
7. Transfer the chocolate-drizzled cookies back into the freezer for 10 -15 more minutes to let the chocolate harden. Then all done! Simple as that.
We ate them out of the freezer right away, and they were amazing, but I kept the remaining cookies in the fridge until they were gone, which was not long considering what a hit they were with my family! This recipe made 13 cookies for me, and they were gone within a couple days, they were that good!
I would absolutely recommend this recipe to anyone wanting to try out a healthier alternative to the usual girl scout cookies, as well as anyone just wanting a new sweet treat to bless their lives!
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and thank you Eating Bird Food and Laurel for sharing this amazing recipe, I know I will be making many more times. A recipe absolutely worth sharing!
you are blessed. you are gifted. you are loved and appreciated, just as you are.
mindfully, molli
