SAMOAS (CARAMEL DELITES) (GLUTEN-FREE)

Steps:

• Cream together butter and sugar.
• Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum at low speed.
• Stir in vanilla. If dough is too dry, add milk 1 tbsp at a time. If dough is too sticky, add flour 1 tbsp at a time. I ended up adding about 3 tbsp extra flour.
• Roll dough to slightly less than 1/4" thick between two pieces of well floured parchment paper (I used sweet-rice-flour).
• Using a circle cookie cutter about 1.5-2" in diameter, make rounds out of the flattened dough. Use a knife to cut out the center of each round. The end result should look kind of like a flat doughnut.
• Reroll left over dough and continue making rounds until no dough remains. Keep rolling surfaces well floured.
• On a parchment lined baking sheet, bake cookies in preheated oven at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
• When removing them from the oven, it is very important that you do not break them. They will be very fragile until they cool. Allow to cool completely before topping with caramel coconut mixture.
• Lower oven temperature to 300°F Spread coconut evenly on parchment lined baking sheet and toast for 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes until coconut is evenly browned. Cool on baking sheet.
• Unwrap caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stirring every 45 seconds or so until well combined.
• Fold in shredded coconut.
• Using a high quality silicone spatula, spread caramel mixture even onto cooled cookies. You may break the cookies doing this, but do not worry, the caramel will hold it all together when cooled. Reheat caramel mixture as necessary while spreading.
• Allow caramel mixture to set.
• Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 40 seconds or so to prevent scorching.
• Turn cookies upside down on parchment paper and spread a thin layer of chocolate on bottom of cookies. Transfer cookies top-down to fridge to harden chocolate before proceeding to next step.
• Using the remaining melted chocolate (or melt more), pipe topping onto cookies. I used a plastic bag with a small hole cut in the corner.
• Allow chocolate topping to harden before storing in airtight container.