Recipe Recap: Samoa Bark

When I told Heather I was bringing a treat or two to her house Saturday night, she asked if there was any way I could make something halfway, or even a quarterway, healthy.  I told her it went against everything I believed in, but I’d see what I could do.  I don’t think those cookies actually qualified as any kind of health food, but I only took so many over there so my thinking was I was helping out in the portion control department.

Since I pretty much failed in the halfway-healthy department, I tried to make it up to Heather by making a second treat that I knew she’d have no interest in.  Anything with coconut would fit that bill.  I decided to go with a no-bake treat: Samoa Bark.

I lined my pan with foil then melted a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and spread that on the pan.  I topped the chocolate with Lorna Doone shortbread cookies.

That combo went into the freezer while I toasted my coconut.

I set that aside while I worked on the next step: melting a bag of Kraft caramels with a couple tablespoons of water.  Sorry, no picture, but I wouldn’t lie to you:  I melted the caramels, added the coconut to it, mixed it all up, then spread it over the cookies.  And voila!  Samoa Bark!

The coconut layer didn’t stick perfectly to all the cookies so a few of my Lorna Doones were naked on top (sorry, Lorna!).  You didn’t know this was an R-rated dessert, did you?

This treat turned out just okay.  As a big fan of the traditional Samoa Cookies, I was a little disappointed that these weren’t better.  But maybe it was for the best that I didn’t find them irresistible since two-thirds of the batch sat around my house all day Sunday.  I took the leftover treats (both the bark and the cookies) to the doctor’s office in my building on Monday and bid them a fond farewell as I handed them over.  (I just realized that sorta sounds like I was handing over tainted goodies that were going to poison the doctor’s office.  I promise that wasn’t the case.)

{Totally unrelated but I have to share:  We just finished watching a Fringe on the DVR and the TV was on Showtime, which was playing Twilight: Eclipse.  I’m sorry to report that my husband was speaking the lines before the characters.  Apparently I have a closet Twihard on my hands here.}

Okay, back to the treats.  If you’re craving Samoas and missed your opportunity to order some, maybe go get some of those Keebler Coconut Dreams rather than making this, or something like it, from scratch.