Mini Samoa Cookie Cups

I think the Girl Scout Cookie sale has just ended, and this time of year the Internet is inundated with so many recipes inspired by the different cookie flavors. I do love the Samoa cookies, so I always look at the different variation recipes that I see. When I saw this particular recipe I thought it looked great. The only issue was that it used pie crust rather than a cookie base, and I couldn’t really justify that as a cookie. And I make cookies on Friday, so I had to adapt.

I have made quite a few different cookie cups, so I looked at recipes that I had made in the past. This cookie base started out as a chocolate cookie base, so I just took out the cocoa powder and added flour in its place. The cream cheese makes the dough pliable, but too much cream cheese can be too tangy. This one was just right.

The trick with this recipe was the baking time. Pastry dough bakes fairly quickly, cookie dough a little longer. I’m afraid that by the time I got the cookie base baked all the way though, the caramel/coconut filling was too dark brown. It wasn’t horrible, but the balance wasn’t quite right. They still taste pretty good, although the caramel got a little too caramelized. These do taste quite a bit like Samoa cookies, so that’s very nice.

Mini Samoa Cookie Cups

¼ cup butter, room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

20 caramel squares, unwrapped

1 tablespoon water

2/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need two 12-cup mini cupcake pans.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium until creamy. Add the flour, powdered sugar and vanilla and beat on low until the dough comes together. Gather the dough into a ball and divide in half. Divide each half in two. Divide each piece of dough into 6 pieces.

Place one piece of dough in each of the mini muffin cups. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. (I used a tart tamper to do this quickly.) Place 5 chocolate chips in the base of each mini muffin pan.

In a small microwaveable bowl, combine the caramel squares and water. Microwave for 30 seconds and the stir the mixture. Continue microwaving, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Stir in the coconut. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the caramel mixture into each cup and press down.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan to a wire rack.     

In a small microwaveable bowl, combine the 1/3 cup chocolate chips and shortening. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue microwaving, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. Drizzle the chocolate over the cookie cups. Allow the chocolate to set before serving.

Cookie cup recipe from Betty Crocker

Recipe inspiration from Crazy for Crust