Girl Scout Caramel Delight Cookies Recipe

Caramel Delights are the Girl Scout cookie with caramel, coconut and chocolate stripes, officially spelled Caramel deLites and sold in other regions as Samoas. This homemade version bakes 24 shortbread rings, covers each with a tablespoon of soft caramel mixed with toasted coconut, dips the underside in chocolate and stripes the top.

Caramel deLites and Samoas: one cookie, two names

Girl Scouts of the USA lists both with the same description: crisp cookies with caramel, coconut and chocolaty stripes. Caramel deLites come from ABC Bakers and Samoas from Little Brownie Bakers. The page explains why some cookies look the same under two names: each Girl Scout council contracts with one of the two licensed bakers, and their recipes may differ slightly.

Which name is on the box therefore depends on where it was bought. The copy is a reconstruction from that description, and one cookie comes to about 180 calories by USDA figures. MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Girl Scouts of the USA or its bakers.

Recipe

Caramel deLites

A homemade version of Girl Scout Caramel deLites, also sold as Samoas — shortbread rings topped with caramel and toasted coconut, with a chocolate base and chocolate stripes. Twenty-four cookies.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

45 min

Cook

25 min

Total

2 hr 10 min

Serves

24

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• For the shortbread:
• 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 ounces all-purpose flour (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• For the topping:
• 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 8 ounces soft caramels (unwrapped)
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• For the chocolate:
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped)

Instructions

1. Beat the butter, the sugar, the vanilla and the salt for 2 minutes, until smooth. Mix in the flour on low speed until the dough comes together. Press it into a disc, wrap it and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 325°F. Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out 2-inch rounds, cut a 3/4-inch hole from the middle of each, and set the rings on parchment-lined baking sheets. Reroll the scraps.
3. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges just begin to colour. Cool the rings on the sheets.
4. Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and toast it at 325°F for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring twice, until evenly golden.
5. Melt the caramels with the milk in a saucepan over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Stir in the toasted coconut.
6. Press about 1 tablespoon of the warm coconut caramel onto each ring, keeping the hole open. If the mixture stiffens, warm it again for a few seconds.
7. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring each time. Dip the underside of each cookie, set it on parchment, and drizzle the rest of the chocolate across the tops in stripes. Let the chocolate set for 30 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories:

180

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Three parts, in this order

The work goes faster in a fixed order: bake the rings, toast the coconut while they cool, make the caramel last. The caramel topping is spreadable only while warm, so the rings have to be ready and waiting.

• Rings, not rounds. The hole keeps the middle from staying soft. A piping tip or a bottle cap cuts it.
• Toasted coconut. Untoasted coconut is pale, damp and chewy. Ten minutes in the oven dry it and give it its colour.
• Soft caramels and milk. Two tablespoons of milk keep the caramel from setting hard on the cookie.

Caramel that stays where it is put

Press the topping on with damp fingers or the back of a buttered spoon. It should cover the ring to the edge and leave the hole open. A topping that is too hot runs off; one that has cooled tears the cookie. The right moment is when it can be picked up without burning the fingers. The same soft caramels go into the homemade Star Crunch.

Chocolate underneath, stripes on top

The chocolate on the underside seals the shortbread and gives the cookie its base. Dip, let the excess drip off and set the cookie on parchment, chocolate side down. For the stripes, a fork dipped in the chocolate and waved over the tray is enough; a small bag with the corner cut off makes them neater.

A week in a tin

The cookies keep a week in a closed tin at room temperature, with parchment between the layers. They also freeze for two months.

Other Girl Scout cookies on this site are the plain shortbread Trefoils and the gluten-free Toffee-tastic.