These Samoa sugar cookies are like a Girl Scout Samoa Cookie meets a sugar cookie. They’ve got a soft cookie base, that is topped with gooey caramel, toasted coconut, and a chocolate drizzle.

These cookies are inspired by a cookie flavor at one of my favorite cookie shops. I know, I know, I’ve done this before – but there are just so many amazing cookie flavors to be inspired by, and I love being able to take the idea and make it my own. And I promise the results are worth it.

These Samoa Sugar Cookies are one my favorite cookie flavors. I love Samoa Cookies from the Girl Scouts, and am always so excited every year when it’s finally time to order a box, or two, or three 😉

These soft Samoa cookies have a soft and buttery cookie base, it’s almost a mix between a sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie. The cookie is then topped with a gooey caramel, toasted coconut, and drizzled with melted chocolate. There is also chocolate swirled around the bottom of the cookie, since traditional Samoa cookies have chocolate swirled on the bottom, and you can’t say no to more chocolate, right?!

Now I know it looks like a lot of steps to make these cookies, but I promise none of it is too tricky, and the results are well worth it!

How to make Samoa Sugar Cookies?

In a large bowl, cream together your butter, shortening, white sugar, and powdered sugar. Preferably with a stand mixer, if you have it, otherwise a hand mixer should work. Mix for about 2 minutes, till light and fluffy. Scrape the edges and bottom of the bowl as needed.

Add in the milk and eggs and stir till they’re just combined. Then add in the dry ingredients. Your flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix it well until you have a nice soft dough.

Scoop the dough into about 3 Tablespoon sized portions. Roll each of those into large balls and place 6 of them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Spread about 1/4 cup more of white sugar into a shallow plate. Spray the bottom of a flat bottomed glass with cooking spray and then dip the glass into the sugar. Press the cookie down with the bottom of the glass, pressing it about 1/2 inch thick. Press the cookie evenly, and rock the glass back and forth a little as you’ll get the nice crinkled edges. Re-dip the glass into the sugar in between each cookie.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies are just barely done on top. They may not even look fully cooked in the middle. Allow them to cool for several minutes on the baking sheet or they’ll fall apart if you transfer them too soon. Then remove them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Then on to the best part, the toppings.

If you want to add the chocolate bottom, then you’ll need to do this first. Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds, then in additional 15 second increments until you can stir it smooth. Flip one cookie over at a time, and take a small amount of melted chocolate in a spoon and put it on the bottom of the cookie. Spread it around with the bottom of the spoon to cover the bottom of the cookie in a thin layer of chocolate, to about 1/2 an inch from the edge of the cookie. Set the cookies back onto a baking sheet, cooling rack, or parchment paper, upside down until the chocolate is totally set.

Spread half your coconut onto a baking sheet and toast it in the oven until it is lightly brown. Remove it from the oven and mix it with the other half of untoasted coconut. Set it aside.

Now let’s melt the caramel — In a small sauce pan, combine your soft caramels (I’ve used soft caramels like Kraft’s or Werther’s that you have to unwrap, or Kraft Bits) and your milk. Heat over medium low, or low heat until you can stir the caramels and the milk totally together into a caramel sauce like mixture. Spread some caramel over the top of your cookie, to about 1/2 an inch of the edge of the cookie. Immediately sprinkle some of the coconut over the top of the caramel and set the cookie down. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Melt additional chocolate in the microwave until it is smooth. Put the chocolate into a small ziplock bag and snip the corner off with scissors. Drizzle the chocolate over the top of each cookie. Let the chocolate set and dig in!!

Tips to make these Coconut Caramel Sugar Cookies:

You can make different sizes of these cookies based on if you want big giant cookies, or smaller more normal sized (a few bite) cookies. I made some of both so you can see them both. The small cookies were made with 1.5 TBS of dough, and some made with a heaping 3 TBS of dough. If you make small cookies you’ll end up with about 45-48 cookies, if you make big cookies you should have about 24-26 cookies.
Don’t press the cookies too thin. I like mine about 1/2 an inch thick, maybe even a little thicker.
Bake the cookies until they are just barely set on the top. This keeps them nice and soft, you don’t want to over bake them or they’ll be dry.

How to store Samoa Sugar Cookies?

Store the cookies in an airtight container or ziptop bag at room temperature. They should stay good for about 4 days, and if I do say so myself they soften even more on the second day, and might be even better than before.

The cookies may be fine being stacked, but some of the coconut from the cookie underneath may stick to the bottom of the cookie on top. If you don’t mind brushing it off a bit, then it’s not a big deal.

These coconut caramel sugar cookies are like a soft samoa cookie, they are like a soft and buttery sugar cookie, meets a Samoa cookie – with gooey caramel on top of the cookie, then toasted coconut, and a layer of chocolate on the bottom, and a chocolate drizzle. It’s such an amazing cookie that all coconut and caramel lovers will go crazy for!

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Samoa Sugar Cookies