Prep Time: 15 mins | Total Time: 30 mins | Makes: 11 cookies
It’s Girl Scout cookie season! If you haven’t seen the purple, green, and yellow boxes all around town, you better find them soon before they sell out. Local Hint: check out the base of Highlands…they even accept Venmo! But if you’re like me and want to enjoy the best Girl Scout cookie (obvi the Samoas) all year round, you have to make this recipe. I found this healthy, homemade Samoa recipe on the food blog Eating Bird Food. Only 4 ingredients AND in a side-by-side taste test, some preferred these to the packaged cookies…just saying :)
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
1 cup pitted medjool dates, about 10 dates
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup dark chocolate (for a low sugar option, try Lily’s chocolate chips)
1/2 tsp coconut oil
HOW TO MAKE:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Toast the coconut: Spread the shredded coconut onto a baking sheet. Place in oven for 3-5 minutes, until coconut is a light golden brown color. Make sure to keep an eye on the coconut, as it burns really easily. Alternately, you can toast the coconut in a pan on the stove top.
In a food processor, add dates and toasted coconut. Pulse until mixture is combined and starts to form a ball of dough.
Take 1 Tablespoon of dough, roll into a ball and then shape into a round cookie. Using a straw or chopstick punch a hole in the middle of the dough. Move the straw or chopstick around a bit to make the hole wider, if needed. At this point you’ll likely need to reshape the cookie a bit.
Place all cookies on a sheet lined with parchment and transfer to the freezer for 5 mins. to harden up a bit.
While cookies are in the freezer, add chocolate and coconut oil to a shallow microwave-safe bowl and melt in 20-30 second increments until the chocolate is melted enough to drizzle.
Grab cookies from the freezer and dip each one in the chocolate to coat the bottom. Place cookies on the parchment and use remaining chocolate to drizzle over top the cookies.
Transfer cookies back into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to let the chocolate harden. Once they’ve hardened you’ll be able to easily remove the cookies from the parchment paper.
For enjoying later, store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to one week.