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 1/4 cups almond flour (125g)
- 1/4 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Chocolate Filling and Drizzle:
- 4 ounces sugar free dark chocolate , chopped
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or butter
Coconut Caramel Filling:
- 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup Swerve Brown
- 1/4 cup Bocha Sweet or additional Swerve Brown
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp 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 2/3 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.
Nutrition
