Keto Samoa Cookie Bars! You won’t crave Girl Scout cookies with these delicious low carb bars. An almond flour shortbread crust topped with coconut caramel and chocolate, and easy to make too.
This Samoa Bar recipe was first published in 2011. Whoa, dudes, that’s a long time ago now. So they are deserving of an update, and are now lower carb. And prettier photos too!
Good old Samoa cookies. What do they call them now? Caramel Delites or some such silliness. Okay, much more politically correct and all that jazz, but practically no one know what you are talking about. However, if you say Samoa Cookies, everyone knows exactly what you mean.
So I am calling this recipe Samoa Cookie Bars. It’s got better name recognition and it rolls of the tongue much more easily. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Why Samoa Bars?
Now, I could have made these as low carb cookies instead of bars. But let’s examine that a little more closely. The original Samoa cookie is a circular shortbread cookie with a topping of coconut and caramel. The bottom is then dipped in chocolate and more chocolate is drizzled overtop.
That’s a lot of work, my friends!
Rolling out the dough, cutting it out into circles, cutting out a hole in the middle, and then trying to top those delicate cookies with the caramel and dip them in chocolate?
Tasty and pretty, I am sure. But far too laborious for my taste.
Taking all those same elements and turning them into bars is far easier and you get the deliciousness into your mouth that much fast. Win win, I would say.
Way back when I first created this Keto Samoa Bar recipe, I thought I was being pretty darn original. I wanted that delicious coconut caramel flavor with a shortbread crust and I realized quickly that a bar cookie would be far less work.
Then I did a Pinterest search and I quickly realized that many others have hit upon this same idea. Great minds, right???
Making Keto Samoa Cookies
But while I may lack in coming up with completely original ideas, I make up for it by taking those ideas and making them keto friendly. As far as I can tell, this is the very first low carb Samoa Cookie Recipe. There are certainly more now, but my samoa bars were the first of their kind!
Does that win me any awards? Maybe in my own mind.
Obviously a lot has to change to make Samoa cookies low carb and sugar-free.
The Shortbread Base: I’ve made a fair bit of low carb shortbread in my day and almond flour makes the best crust by far. When it’s baked with butter, sweetener, and salt, it becomes both tender and crisp, just like conventional shortbread. The crust on these Samoa Bars is my favourite and I’ve used it over and over in many recipes.
The Chocolate Dip and Drizzle: To make things even easier in this recipe, I decided to do a layer of chocolate on top of the crust. Real Samoa Cookies have bottoms that are dipped in chocolate. But that would mean cutting up the bars after they were finished and carefully dipping them. It would be far messier too.
Would your tastebuds really know the difference between a layered Samoa Bar versus a dipped Samoa Bar? I think not.
So I simply poured about two thirds of the chocolate mixture over the cooled crust, before topping it with the coconut caramel.
The Coconut Filling: Samoa Cookies are now called Caramel De-Lites because of that delicious coconut caramel topping. I’ve got one of the best sugar free caramel sauce recipes and it’s perfect for these bars. Stir in some toasted coconut and spread it over top, and drizzle on a bit more chocolate.
And Voila! A delicious low carb Samoa Cookie Recipe. In bar form. Trust me, your tastebuds won’t care!
So if you’ve been missing Girl Scout Cookies on your low carb diet, try this easy recipe. You won’t regret it.
Samoa Cookie Bars - Keto and Sugar-Free
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour (125g)
- ¼ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter, melted
Chocolate Filling and Drizzle:
- 4 ounces sugar free dark chocolate , chopped
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil or butter
Coconut Caramel Filling:
- 1 ½ cups shredded coconut
- 3 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup Swerve Brown
- ¼ cup Bocha Sweet or additional Swerve Brown
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 325F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until the mixture begins to come together.
- Turn out the mixture into an 8x8 baking pan and press firmly into the bottom. Bake about 15 to 18 minutes, until just golden brown. Remove and let cool while preparing the filling.
Chocolate Filling/Drizzle:
- In a small microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate and coconut oil in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Alternatively, you can melt it double boiler style over a pan of barely simmering water.
- Spread about ⅔ of the chocolate mixture over the cooled crust.
Coconut Filling:
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, spread the coconut. Stirring frequently, toast until light golden brown. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and sweeteners. Cook until melted and then bring to a boil. Boil 3 to 5 minutes, until golden.
- Remove from heat and add the cream, vanilla, and salt. The mixture will bubble vigorously, this is normal.
- Stir in the toasted coconut. Spread the mixture over the chocolate-covered crust. Let cool completely (about 1 hour), then cut into squares. Gently reheat remaining chocolate mixture and drizzle over the bars.
Terri says
My caramel didn’t thicken. You say to ‘spread’ it on top of the chocolate layer. Mine is very liquidy. What did I do wrong?
Carolyn says
Did you use a different sweetener?
paula says
could you replace coconut flour for 1/4 of almond flour to help bring carbs down more?
Carolyn says
No… coconut flour does not make a good crust like this.
Jennifer says
Carolyn, I’ve been practicing the keto woe for almost 7 years and this is hands down the BEST dessert I’ve made. So much so that I don’t know if I can make it again because it’s so difficult for me to stop at just one bar. Who am I kidding??! Of course I’ll make them again! And the almond joy bars. And I can’t wait to try the new peanut butter muffins!
Carolyn says
So delighted to hear it!
Lisa says
These are absolutely amazing!!!
Joyce says
These are my hubby’s favorite dessert flavors. Made the cookie bars tonight and they were wonderful. I thought initially I had undercooked the caramel sauce cause it wasn’t as thick as it should be when poured over the crust, however it firmed up ok in the fridge. Going to try these in the freezer as they are quite rich and there is only two of us eating them. Again, another delicious guilt free indulgence. Thanks.
Maria says
Delicious!!! I love chocolate and coconut combo. Very tasty!
Gisele Smith says
Wow! I would never know these bars were missing the sugar. They certainly are not missing on flavor. Much better than a Girl Scout cookie (and I can have these year round). This is the sort of treat that will keep me keto for the rest of my life.
Barb says
Just made these, in fridge cooling. Husband had to try filling gave it 5 stars. Your recipes are a inspiration and keeping me on track.
Nate says
HI. I made these and they are good but the caramel sauce layer is all watery. I know in previous versions of your caramel stuff after adding the heavy cream you put it back on the stove and bring to a boil again but this recipe doesn’t call for that so I didn’t do that. Is that step possibly missing or did I just not boil the butter/sugars long enough?
Thanks for any feedback you might give me on why it didn’t turn out.
Carolyn says
It shouldn’t need it. If it was watery then you didn’t cook it long enough the first time.
AndyJ says
Greetings. I don’t have Bocha Sweet and don’t want to use that much Swerve Brown. Is using regular Swerve in place of Bocha Sweet OK or will it cause the consistency to be off or will it crystalize as a result? Thanks.
Carolyn says
It will recrystallize.
Christie says
These are so incredibly delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
Dianna says
I made this recipe yesterday & all I can say is “ Scrumptious!!” It certainly reminds me of my Girl Scout days & selling these cookies. Thank you for another wonderful Keto recipe that is easy to make & turns out fantastic!!
Carolyn says
So glad!
Lois Russell says
I can’t rate as I haven’t made them yet.. I’ve used brown Swerve in pecan pie before and it crystalized on me. It was pretty icky. Has anyone complained of crystallization?