Five Recipes: five

Homemade Samoas

Cookies

1 cup butter, soft

1/2 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 at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.
Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake cookies for 9-12 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set.

Topping

3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

12-oz good-quality chewy caramels

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally.

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.
Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 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. Heat on high 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 (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

recipe courtesy of baking bites

Chocolate Crinkles

1/4 C butter

3/4 c unsweetened cocoa (dutch processed, if you have it)

3 eggs

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 c canola oil

2 tsp baking powder

2-3 tsp almond extract

2 c flour

powdered sugar

Melt butter on stove-top and thoroughly mix in cocoa. Mix with eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder, and almond extract. Mix in the flour incrementally. Put the resulting dough into the freezer until it's easy to handle (about the length of a good movie). Roll the dough into balls, then roll the dough balls in powdered sugar -- I find that it's easiest to put the powdered sugar in a bowl with high enough sides that you can just put the ball into the sugar and shake the bowl around until adequate sugar coverage has been reached.)

Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 350F for 8-9 minutes. Let cool. Enjoy.

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens