Having been involved with the Girl Scouts organization for many years, it has been hard for son, Michael’s family to eat the cookies sold by the Girl Scouts. They went paleo/primal/primative almost a year ago so that means no flour or processed foods. I went on a quest to research recipes that I could feed the girls when they came to visit this summer.

One of the recipes I found was for Samoa Donuts. If you have ever had Samoa cookies from the Girl Scouts, you know how very, truly delicious they are – all that chocolate on the bottom of the cookie, how creamy the caramel on top is & topped off with more chocolate!!!

I try not to make many sweets unless there are other people around to help eat them. Remember, I have a truly horrible “sweet tooth.” Before the girls arrived, I made a batch of these wonderful little gems. They are good frozen, still cold, or just room temperature.

Ingredients

For the Donuts

  • 2½ cups blanched almond flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • A scant less than 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons honey
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened or liquid
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon juice
  • 3 whole large room temp eggs

Coconut caramel topping

  • 1 can full-fat coconut milk (about 1? cups)
  • 1/2 cup mild flavored honey or maple syrup, (I like the syrup)
  • A pinch of sea salt
  • 1 rounded tablespoon ghee or butter (can sub palm shortening or coconut oil)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup finely shredded coconut, plus 2 more tablespoons for garnishing

For the Dipping Chocolate

  • 1 bag Enjoy Life Chocolate chips (melted in a double boiler)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your mini donut making machine OR preheat the oven to 350 degrees if you are using a regular donut pan or making into muffins.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda and salt.
  3. In another bowl, combine the honey, oil, vanilla, lemon juice and eggs.
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  4. Add the oil/honey mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix till just combined.
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  5. Add about 2 tablespoons of batter to each mold in the donut machine or scoop the batter into a Ziplock bag, twisting the other end to close it. Snip the end off of one of the corners with a scissors. Start with a small cut. You can always make it bigger if you need too. Squeeze batter into molds.
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  6. Close the lid and allow to cook for about 2 minutes. Times will vary with each machine. Open the machine and flip over each donut using the forked ‘skewer’ that comes with most machines. Close the lid again cook for about one more minute. Remove donuts and let cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
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  7. If using a regular donut pan, fill each well-greased mold about ¾ full. Smooth the tops if needed and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
  8. Makes 12-15 mini donuts or 6 regular sized ones (depending on how much batter you eat during the prep time.)

For the Coconut Caramel

  1. In a small-medium heavy bottomed sauce pan, bring the coconut milk, honey and salt to a boil over medium high heat, being sure that they are well combined. Reduce to a medium heat, and let the mixture boil down for about 35-40 minutes.
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  2. Add the ghee and vanilla, stirring it in till well incorporated. Continue cooking for another 5-15 minutes or as long as needed until it is a deep caramel color. Don?t rush the process. Depending on how hot your burner is this process could be faster or slower. Stir often toward the end to keep the bottom from burning too much. A little burning is fine as long as you are stirring it in to the mixture. It will give it a darker flavor.
  3. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and let cool for 5 minutes then stir vigorously until it?s creamy, shinny and smooth.
  4. While the caramel is cooking, spread the coconut out on an ungreased cookie sheet and toast the coconut in a 325 degree oven. Stir often till golden, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
  5. Mix the toasted coconut into the caramel minus a tablespoon or so for garnishing later. Use coconut caramel while still warm for best spreading results. Caramel can be made ahead of time (w/o the shredded coconut) and reheated in a double boiler.

As you can see, there are no instructions on how to complete the donuts.  I dipped each donut in the chocolate & turned it upside down to let the chocolate harden (you can put it in the fridge if necessary).  After the chocolate is hardened, I turned the donuts right side up (with the chocolate on the bottom) & spooned the caramel around the top – letting it slide off the sides.

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I put the remaining chocolate into a disposable decorator bag (or you can use a Ziplock baggy as noted above) & drizzled it across the donuts.  Let the chocolate harden & enjoy!  I froze mine until the girls arrived & then we took out what we wanted every day and either ate them frozen or thawed?good either way!!!!!

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