Homeade Samoa Cookies

We eat mostly healthy foods at our house. My husband, though, is somewhat opposed and tends to bring home lots of goodies. So, when the girl scouts came calling, he came home with five boxes of sugary, caramelly, coconut goodness. Namely: Samoa's.
I had to find a way to make these at home. I found a recipe that sounded amazing at A bicycle Built For 2.
Here are the ingredients (for the full directions click on the link above).I only changed a few things about their recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 12 ounces of caramels
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 8 ounces chocolate chips

To curb my guilty feeling (like these changes make it healthy!) I used: unsalted butter, Splenda in place of the sugar, Unbleached flour, and Dark Chocolate chips. 

My sister-in-law and I came up with a trick using "Holy Water" as she called it. Dipping our fingers into a dish with water to help form the caramel to the shape of the cookie. And we did do the chocolate coating before putting the caramel mixture on top. It just seemed logical. One more thing: the cooling process is very important! You have to wait. Even though you will be dying to eat them by the time they are assembled.

If I were you, I would stash two or three somewhere where you can be pleasantly surprised in a couple of days! These things will go fast!  Happy Eating!