Tag Archives: Girl Scout Cookies

Samoa Cookie Butter

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When I was a kid and Girl Scout cookie season came along, I anticipated the arrival just as anxiously as I would Santa Claus (you could say I’ve always been overly infatuated with food). GS cookie season was a mini holiday.

I recall Mother Cookie storing the treasured treats in a tin box in the kitchen of my childhood home in Newton, NJ. I wasn’t allowed to eat a lot of them, so I would stealthily creep into the kitchen, painstakingly ease the lid off the tin in slow motion, snatch up a Thin Mint, and retreat. Hooray for another gloriously successful and seamless theft!

In retrospect, I probably wasn’t as cunning as I recall. But the point is: I risked my childhood existence to obtain an extra cookie or two. Forgive me, Mother Cookie, but food has always had that kind of power over me.

Nowadays, I can’t say my love for GS cookies has diminished in the slightest. However, I am no longer secretive of my consumption of them because of house rules, but because the amount I can eat in one sitting is shameful. Some people are quite judgmental of my GS cookie love, claiming that I shouldn’t like them because they’re not homemade. What the heck is that? I can’t enjoy a cookie unless I make it?

Well, I’m not that much of a food snob. GS cookies were, and always will be, a guilty pleasure of mine. I bought extra boxes just so I could bake with them. And given the butter making obsession I’ve had since I got my food processor (see: White Chocolate Maple Almond Butter, Chocolate Coconut Cashew Butter, and Frosted Circus Animal Cookie Butter), this Samoa Cookie Butter was bound to happen. The little Girl Scout Cookie Gods wished it to be, and so it was.DSC_3054

I might have to mark this creamy, rich treat as my best butter yet. It’s so addicting that the US government might have to outlaw it, so I suggest making some ASAP while you still can. Who knew a 4-ingredient treat could be this heavenly?

Don’t take my word for it; ask Mother Cookie. I kept begging her to try some, and she hemmed and hawed about how she wouldn’t like it and it would be too sweet blah blah blah. And guess what? She LOVED it, couldn’t believe how good it was. That’s because this smooth butter is about 75% composed of the chocolaty, caramelly, coconutty goodness from one of the best Girl Scout cookies, and about 25% cashews and pecans to cut the sweetness and make it heartier. It provides a great flavor balance, and gives you an excuse to spread this stuff on everything.

My method of choice is the pretzel. It was the greatest salty-sweet pairing my tongue has ever experienced. Definitely give that a go.

I’m going to put those Girl Scouts out of business with this Samoa Cookie Butter. Watch out!

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

  1. You could turn any of the GS cookies into cookie butter. In fact, I intend to try ‘em all!
  2. Need more GS cookies in you baking life? Try my GS Cookie Stuffed Brownies.
  3. Want to enjoy GS cookie goodness all year-long? Do what I do: buy ‘em in bulk and stash ‘em in your freezer to take out when the cravings strike.
  4. You can add more or less oil to make it smoother/thicker. Just keep in mind, it will thicken as it sits.
  5. Making cookie butters and nut butters is a process. Be patient; the processor will need to do its thing for a while to create enough friction and make this nice and smooth. If it’s too thick, just add another touch of oil, but let it process a while first to be sure it’s necessary.DSC_3071

Samoa Cookie Butter
By The Smart Cookie Cook

Ingredients:

  • 1 box Samoa cookies
  • ½ cup cashews
  • ¼ cup pecans
  • 1-2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

  1. In the bowl of a food processor, process cookies, cashews, and pecans until they resemble a fine crumb. Scrape down the side then process for another 2 minutes, or until it starts to clump together.
  2. Stream in the vegeteable oil 1 tbsp. at a time, pulsing as you go. Then process until smooth and spreadable, about 5 minutes (be patient; you need to let the friction break it down, which may take time). Add more oil to reach a spreadable consistency if necessary. Serve with pretzels (HIGHLY recommended), apple slices, Nilla wafers, celery sticks, pound cake, or whatever you like. Store in an air-tight container.DSC_3052

Girl Scout Cookie-Stuffed Brownies (VIDEO)

When winter winds down, you can feel it in the air. You can almost smell it coming. Your instincts take over, and you know.

It’s Girl Scout Cookie Season.

Girl Scout Cookies are America’s guilty pleasure. We all love to indulge in a few from time to time (or, you know, a boxful). I don’t know what it is about those Girl Scouts, but they sure know how to make tasty cookies. Plus, there’s such a plethora of tantalizing flavors that it’s impossible not to find one you like. Personally, my top 3 are Tagalongs, Samoas, and Thin Mints. I order a couple boxes of each to keep me going for a while (or at least a week).

Now, once you get past the initial stuff-my-face-oh-my-god-I’ve-missed-you-girl-scout-cookies stage, you start to crave more. Maybe you buy that Girl Scout Cookie flavored ice cream from the store. Or perhaps you find a way to work them into all three meals of the day. Me, I always aim to bake with the things I love. So really, the birth of these Girl Scout Cookie-Stuffed Brownies was only natural.

Who doesn’t love a good brownie? Fudgy, rich, and decadent, they are a truly beloved dessert. Make ‘em with dark cocoa powder, and you’ve got some seriously dark and indulgent treats. The only way they could be improved upon is to literally stuff whole Girl Scout Cookies into the brownies’ fudgy interiors. Oh, and a delicious glaze never hurts. This is the sweetest form of sin. Can dessert be heavenly and devilish? Try one of these brownies and you’ll know the answer to that one.

I used two of my favorites for these treats: Tagalongs and Samoas. However, just about any of the Girl Scout Cookies will work beautifully, so pick your favorite. Then, once my brownies were stuffed and baked, I topped them with coordinating glazes. So, for the Tagalongs, I did a creamy peanut butter glaze. For the Samoas, I did a caramel-coconut glaze. The topping acts as a little hint for the cookie you’re about to discover buried beneath the brownie’s dark depths. It’s the perfect finishing touch, like frosting on a cake or butter on a biscuit.

Love Girl Scout Cookies? Then you’re going to fall in love with these dark, decadent brownies. Two delicious treats fused into one, it’s almost too good to be true. Best of all, they’re so simple to make. And yet, anybody who tries one will be so impressed. It’s our little secret.

Excuse me, but I’ve got to go sink my teeth into one of these brownies. There’s a Tagalong just begging to get out.

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

  1. If you plan to use different flavored cookies for the filling, then you’ll need a different glaze.
    • If you’re using Thin Mints, do a drizzle of hot fudge. You can even add a drop of mint extract to it.
    • If you’re using Do-Si-Do’s, stick with the PB glaze.
    • If you’re using Tresfoils, you could do the hot fudge glaze, the PB glaze, or a plain caramel glaze.
  2. Don’t feel like making the brownie batter from scratch? Go ahead and use a boxed mix.
  3. You can make these using one kind of cookie or all of them if you wish. It’s up to you!
  4. If you’re making multiple flavors, make sure you designate which brownies are which before baking. I had some issues with that and wound up having the cut into some of them to recall what kind of cookie they had before glazing them.
  5. Watch the video above to see how to make these babies step-by-step!

Girl Scout Cookie-Stuffed
By the Smart Cookie Cook

Yield: about 18 brownies

Ingredients:

  • One batch brownie batter, recipe follows (or use a store-bought mix)
  • 18 Girl Scout Cookies of your choice (I used Tagalongs and Samoas)

For the Peanut Butter Glaze:

  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp. butter, melted and warm
  • 3 tbsp. powdered sugar

For the Caramel-Coconut Glaze:

  • One bottle caramel sundae syrup (like Smucker’s)
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut

For the Mint Chocolate Glaze:

  • 1 cup hot fudge, store-bought or homemade
  • 1/4 teaspoon mint extract

For the brownie batter:
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 2 1/4 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups Dark Baking Cocoa (like Hershey’s) or Dutch Process Cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

  1. Make the brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin/cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and baking cocoa, but be gentle. Overmixing produces cakey brownies. Set aside.
  3. In a small pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar until completely dissolved. Stir warm sugar mixture into cocoa mixture just until combined. Gently stir in flour until just combined.
  4. Using a ladle or an ice cream scoop, pour about a tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. It should be about 1/4-1/3 full. Then place one cookie into the center of each and cover with another dollop of brownie batter. They should wind up being 2/3 – 3/4 full. Note: if you are making different flavors of cookies, make sure you designate which brownies are which before baking so you know which glaze to use on them.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.
  6. Let brownies rest for five minutes then gently remove them from the muffin tins and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  7. When the brownies are cool, make the glaze(s).
    • For Tagalong-stuffed brownies, make the peanut butter glaze: Whisk warm, melted butter together with the peanut butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Using a fork or a condiment dispenser, drizzle glaze onto brownies.
    • For Samoa-stuffed brownies, make the coconut-caramel glaze: Drizzle caramel syrup onto each brownie. Sprinkle with coconut.
    • For Thin Mint-stuffed brownies, make the mint chocolate glaze: Heat fudge in the microwave just until warm. Whisk in mint extract. Using a fork or a condiment dispenser, drizzle glaze onto brownies.
    • For Do-Si-Do-stuffed brownies, make the peanut butter glaze (see Tagalong-stuffed brownies above).
    • For Tresfoils-stuffed brownies, make either the peanut butter glaze (see Tagalong-stuffed brownies above), a plain caramel glaze (using the caramel sundae syrup), or a plain chocolate glaze (using the hot fudge).
  8. Store in an airtight container, preferably in the fridge. Allow to come to room temperature before eating. Enjoy!