Homemade Samoas

Cookies:

* 1 cup butter, soft1/2 cup sugar
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* up to 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt followed by the vanilla and milk. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.

Roll the dough between pieces of wax paper and use a circle cookie cutter to make small rounds. Place on baking sheet and use a smaller item to cut a smaller center hole. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are lightly gold. Cool.

Topping:

* 3 cups shredded coconut
* 1 lb chewy caramels
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 3 tbsp milk
* 8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a baking sheet and toast 5-10 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. Spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 3 tsp per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.

While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate into a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

These taste like the real thing! Be careful, you might eat all of them in one sitting.