Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is recovering from a nice holiday break shared with friends and family. If your family is anything like mine, all our holidays are pretty much centered around food! I have another pinterest find to share with you that I made over the holidays, and it is definitely worth making again if I could only find the willpower not to eat it all!

I am sure everyone is familiar with the scrumptious Samoa girl scout cookies? When I was an auditor my coworker and I decided to butter up our client by buying boxes of these from her daughter and we would just eat them over the course of the audit, which was a few weeks long. Those cookies didn't last until the end of the day! It's so hard to eat just one!

Samoa Bark

When I ran across this recipe on pinterest, I was so excited that it looked good, would be a great Christmas item to share, AND it started with an S that I didn't take too much time to read the

instructions. What I normally like to do is make things that are easy with a few ingredients but look and taste like I was cooking for much longer! However, the morning we were supposed to leave for my grandparents and I finally read the entire recipe I was in for a rude awakening! This was my first time to dissolve sugar until it has an "amber" hue and melt chocolate over a glass bowl. Thankfully my mom was there to help, but I am still not sure why you can't just stick the chocolate in the microwave (I still have so much to learn)!

Ingredients

Makes 1 8×8 pan | Preparation: Line pan with parchment or wax paper with a one-inch overhang on each side.

1 11.5oz dark chocolate (Ghirardelli)

1 cup coarsely crushed shortbread

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

¾ cup caramel sauce (recipe follows)

Directions

Instructions:

Place coconut on a parchment lined bakesheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes or until coconut starts to brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Make caramel sauce and set aside to cool. Portion out 2 tablespoons for topping. Place chocolate in double boiler or a heat-proof bowl over simmering water and gently stir until chocolate is melted. Portion out 2 tablespoons for topping. Pour half of chocolate into prepared pan, and, using an offset icing spatula smooth out chocolate until an even layer is achieved.

Sprinkle coarsely crushed shortbread on top and gently press it into the chocolate. Transfer pan to the freezer for 5 minutes or until chocolate becomes slightly hardened. Remove pan from freezer and pour caramel sauce on top, then, using an offset icing spatula spread caramel until an even layer is achieved. Transfer pan to the freezer for 5 minutes or until caramel becomes slightly hardened. Remove pan from freezer and pour other half of chocolate on the caramel layer. To finish, sprinkle coconut on top and drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons of chocolate and caramel on top of coconut. Transfer pan to refrigerator for about 5-10 or until bark is set. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Caramel Filling

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

4 tablespoon butter

7 tablespoon heavy cream

Instructions:

Add sugar and water into a saucepan over medium low heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Use a wet brush to remove any crystals that form on the side. Once sugar has dissolved increase heat to high. Now and then, using the handle give the pot a swirl to keep the mixture moving. Do not stir the mixture directly. The mixture will start to bubble after a minute. As the mixture darkens to a medium amber color, approximately 5-7 minutes, add the butter and heavy cream to saucepan. The mixture will bubble wildly (and it really does!!!). Whisk to combine (bubbles will subside upon cooling). Set aside to cool completely.

As you can see it's pretty sticky but so good! This is after my cousins and I did a taste test just to make sure it was worthy of being included in the Christmas spread. It was a hit!