Semi-heatlhy Samoas

I made this recipe last night when I found out that WCPSS was canceling school again for snow!  Baking during the cold weather is one of my favorite activities.  Shawn's favorite girl scout cookies are Samoas, so these seemed like the obvious choice for dessert.

http://detoxinista.com/2012/02/grain-free-samoas-bars-girl-scout-cookies/


What you'll need (I always look at a recipe's ingredients first before I decide if I can make it or not based on what I have in my pantry/fridge):

 1 cup almond flour
3 Tbsp + 2 tsp coconut oil
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp + pinch of sea salt
4 oz dark chocolate (I used unsweetened Baker's chocolate and sweetened with liquid stevia)
3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp maple syrup
2 2/3 cups of unsweetened coconut (or 1 cup of coconut butter)
** you will need a food processor if you don't have coconut butter
2 (additional) cups unsweetened coconut
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
*optional:1/4 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

A few notes from my kitchen:
- I used Trader Joe's almond flour.  I'm not sure how that affected the taste to be honest, because these bars are so rich!  If you are going to only make the shortbread cookies I would go with Detoxinista's almond flour brand suggestion
- I did not have enough coconut (only about 3 cups) so I only processed 2 cups of the coconut to make butter, and stopped it a little before it was all of the way smooth.  They still turned out great!  I would use less maple syrup to make it a little less sweet and fix the ratio.
- I  didn't have molasses on hand so I didn't use that for the macaroon topping.
- I melted the extra 1 oz of chocolate with a little coconut oil and liquid stevia and drizzled on top.
- We couldn't wait for them to be all of the way cooled so we ate them warm.  They were so decadent!  I can't wait to try them cooled though, they will probably taste more like the cookies.

Thanks Detoxinista for another great recipe!

Enjoy!
Kristen