Samoa Cookie Bars

[nverland]

Samoa Cookie Bars
Yield: 16 cookie bars

Ingredients

Cookie
1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
6 Tbsp butter, diced
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp water, if needed

Toppings
2 cups coconut
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter
25 Kraft Caramels, wrappers removed
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper, leaving some sticking above the sides of the pan to lift the bars out later.
2. Add flour, sugar, butter, vanilla extract and water to a bowl and mix on slow until it comes together and forms a ball. You can also use a food processor and pulse the ingredients until they form a ball.
3. Press dough evenly into the bottom of the pan.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
5. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely.
6. Spread coconut onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.
7. When crust is cool, put water, butter and caramels into a medium sized pot on medium heat. Allow everything to melt, stirring often so that the mixture doesn’t boil.
8. Add about 1 ½ cups of the toasted coconut and mix together.
9. Spread caramel mixture evenly over shortbread, pressing it into an even layer.
10. Sprinkle remaining toasted coconut over the caramel mixture and press into the caramel.
11. Allow caramel to fully cool, about an hour.
12. Remove from pan and cut into 16 bars.
13. Melt about 5 oz of chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave, heating in 30 second increments until melted.
14. Dip the bottoms of each bar into the chocolate, then wipe excess of on the side of the bowl. You don’t want it to be a real thick layer of chocolate, just a light coating. Places bars on parchment paper to dry.
15. Melt remaining chocolate chips and drizzle it over the tops of the bars.
16. Allow chocolate to cool and harden.