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.
Brewed Coffee says
Yes, I guess that when it comes to recipes, with so much of them around, we find it hard to come up with very original ones, those never before seen….but I suppose the difference will be evident once we taste the food 🙂 The originality there is very distinguishable.
I like the new blog layout…nicely done! 🙂
Lynn says
I know your frustration, many of my wonderful ideas have already been thought of too.
But you definitely made these bars your own. They look amazing!
Hester aka The Chef Doc says
Yup, Samoas are my favorite GS cookies when the season comes around. Or, I guess they're called Caramel Delights now. Either way, your bars look scrumptious! Send some my way, please 🙂
Kim Bee says
These are incredible. I can't get over how moist they look. You really knocked this one out of the park.
Curt says
I know exactly how you feel when creating a new recipe. Or so you thought!
I feel so naive when I realize it's been done numerous times, but I hadn't heard of it yet.
Like when I thought I was on to something special by putting coffee in a spice rub. 2 days later I saw Bobby Flay doing it.
Back on subject; these bars look delicious!
SweetSugarBelle says
These look wonderful!
Lacy says
oh my god these look amazing!! i just started liking the samoa girl scout cookie. i bet these are even better!
Angie's Recipes says
Those look so good! mm.. the caramel filling makes me drool..
Lizzy says
Oh, you have made many, many people happy today with this recipe! My favorite GS cookie…and you've miraculously made them low carb and gluten free and DELICIOUS!!! Buzzed and stumbled these winners.
Wenderly says
Stunning. Absolutely stunning! AND they're low carb and gluten free? You are brilliant!
Jennifer says
Lovely, Carolyn – as always. You also know how to set the stage for beautiful photos. My son says you could be a professional food photographer! I have an idea and will contact you soon. 🙂
Jen at The Three Little Piglets says
One of my chef instructors is always say we are all copycats because there is nothing new under the sun! Look delicious to me!
RavieNomNoms says
I feel the same way. I made those salted caramel brownies not too long ago and then all of a sudden I see salted caramels, and then salted brownies. Haha, I hear ya lady. No matter what you do it always seems you thought of it last. But your blog is very original, don't forget that. Even if you might have a similar recipe to someone else. I find your blog one of the most unique.
These bars are great! Somoas are my favorite girl scout cookie. They used to be called caramel delights when I was a girl scout hehe
Karen says
I hate it when you think of something and then see it on a blog days later…I always feel like it will look like I'm "copying"…ha.
Each and every element of these bars sounds so tempting…I can imagine they combine to make a wonderful treat!
naomi says
I love Samoas, so I have this bookmarked to try!
Krissy says
I'm thrilled you posted your "unoriginal" recipe. I would have never thought to do this and they are my favorite cookies! Drooling over here. Well done.
Erin says
Oh yum! Your bars look perfect! Amazing how you can almost never come up with anything original.
Birgit Kerr says
Ohhh, they look/sound delicious!I have to try those soon – very soon! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
And I totally know what you mean about "originality." There have been countless time when I thought I had come up with something totally new only to find that others had done it 5 different ways before me already. However, I've resigned myself to that fact and post the recipes anyway, as all of them will be slightly different and will suit different people, so it's all good 🙂
S.V. says
These look so good….. they are my favorite girl scout cookie. Looks even better in bar form. YUM.
Foodness Gracious says
Ingenious! Maybe you could try working that caramel sauce into my Budino?
Take care..