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.
Angie M. says
This recipe made my day. I made these tonight. Oh my word! They were slap your mama good. This kind of cooking makes keto totally doable forever. Thank you for sharing!
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it!
Michelle Neill says
This is the cookie bar that made me fall in love with your baking soooo many years ago. I was going to look for the recipe today as it’s the dreaded GS cookie season… And here it is updated!!!! So love it and you. ???? ❤️
Wendy Ellis says
Can I use Lilly’s milk chocolate melted with cocoa butter for the chocolate layer and drizzle?
Carolyn says
Sure, that would be fine. I have an updated version of this coming soon.
Julie says
First time cooking with artificial sweeteners and it was a disaster! The erythritol and molasses burnt before bubbling – even though I was stirring constantly over low/medium heat. Is there a trick that I need to learn in working with these ingredients?!
Carolyn says
This is a very old recipe that I haven’t had a chance to re-visit in a while but it may have been the brand of erythritol you used. I always use Swerve.
Carrie Valentin says
There is no print button!!Help!!
Carolyn says
This is an older recipe from before I had a print button for them. All you need to do is cut and paste into a word doc.
Tori says
These are wonderful. I have a stash of favorite bar recipes and this one goes to the top. Thank you for all the time you invest in providing great recipes for us keto diabetics. There is a special place in heaven for you.
Carolyn says
Thanks, Tori!
Judy says
Do you think I could replace the whipping cream with full fat canned coconut milk?
Carolyn says
I can’t say for sure but people have said they’ve had good luck with a lot of my caramel recipes doing that. So I say it’s certainly worth a try.
Mindy says
Additional NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: 1 bar (makes 16) 263 calories, 2.1g protein, 20.7g fat
Worked out the math but haven’t made them yet. So excited to try this recipe!!
Mindy says
I new favorite of mine! I loved the mixed textures.
Common Sense says
Finally got around to making these today – just wonderful! My eldest adult son, who sneers at my “low carb stuff”, liked them too.
They do take a bit more time than other treats since there are 3 layers. Not difficult, just time consuming compared to say, the cookie skillet. But well worth it!
Carolyn says
I love it when I win over a non-low-carver! 😉
Rae says
My daughter and I made these last night. She really wanted to make them and I was against it bc I thought it would be too complicated. They were not complicated at all, and they are awesome. Thank you for your wonderful recipes. Although you can avoid buying processed goodies, and not give them to your kids…it’s hard not to look like the bad guy. Your recipes, so far the brownie bark, skillet cookie, samoa bars and vanilla coconut cupcakes have really made my life easier and have shown my girl that you can eat healthy treats that don’t taste, “gross”. : -)
Carolyn says
Oh good, I am so glad they weren’t hard to make. Trust me, I know all about trying to keep kids off the sugar-y storebought stuff. Sometimes I am successful, but sometimes…not.
Kay says
Great recipe!
My first try was … well, improvable, the crust was very hard. Maybe I got the cup -> metric conversion wrong or it was in the oven too long.
My question is: Do you have some conversion for your Stevia extract like “1 drop = 1 tsp sugar”? Then I could convert it to my Stevia tablets.
Thanks!
–kay
Carolyn says
Not really, but I can say that 1/4 tsp (and this would be about 1/4 tsp) is equal to about 1/4 cup sugar. Does that help?
Grover Rockwood says
7 cups of flour?! I think that is a typo. 😛
These look amazing.
Carolyn says
Where does it say 7 cups of flour?
Crystal says
Non gluten free version??
Carolyn says
I don’t have one but I am sure you can google it.
Brooke says
Hi there! These look Amazing!! Instead of making the chocolate, could I just buy sugar free chocolate to use? It would save me some time and money! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Rachel R. says
Do you happen to know how to substitute sugar for erythritol or vice versa? I don’t eat it, and I don’t know enough about it to know how much of something else to start with. I thought I’d ask you first, ’cause maybe your package says “substitute ____ erythritol for 1 c. sugar” or some such. 🙂
Carolyn says
For this recipe, you could really do cup for cup.
Carol B. says
Omg Carolyn these are amazing – made them tonight and flavor and texture are spot on! The only difference between these and the originals is I could stop after 2 small pieces because they didn’t set me off on a huge sugar binge 🙂
Heather says
OMG, these look delicious and I would love to try them, but do you have any suggestions for substituting for molasses? Thank you for such fabulous recipes!
Heather says
These look delicious and I would love to try them, but do you have any suggestions for substituting for molasses? Thank you for such fabulous recipes!
Carolyn says
You really need a little something to get it going…honey or maple syrup would be fine too. It’s more about getting the caramelization process started.
Rikke says
Do you think Agave would Work? I have a nice dark agave syrup on hand.
Carolyn says
I can’t say for sure but you’re certainly welcome to try it out!
Anonymous says
I made these two days ago and they are amazing. I refrigerated them last night and they are even better when chilled. Bravo – this is my new favorite low-carb "sweets" recipe!
Catherine H. says
Sadly, these did not work out for me. Some of it may have been my fault–I did not cook the caramel long enough because I was nervous about it burning–but I think mistaken expectations may also have set me up for a fall. Samoas are my BFF among girl scout cookies, so I was keenly aware of every difference in texture and taste. The shortbread base was not at all crunchy or cookie-ish, but soft (very like the peanut-butter caramel bars) and too thick. The combination of erythritol-sweetended chocolate and erythritol-filled caramel was too much for my mouth, and I eventually received a burning sensation. This is a phenomenon that only some people seem to experience when eating erythritol–other people who tried the same dessert didn't know what I was talking about. (I wonder if it's a genetic thing, like smelling asparagus in one's urine . . .? To avoid this feeling, I often substitute xylitol, which does not seem to affect me that way.) I wanted to like these, but I just couldn't.