It’s National Donut Day, so I’m pulling out one of my favorite donut recipes EVER for you today! It combines two amazing desserts – donuts and Samoa Girl Scout cookies. YUM! I thought this baby up last year for my food blog that doesn’t exist anymore (because I was crazy thinking I could keep up with both) and it was too good to let it go to waste.
Everyone loves donuts, right? I know I do. And if you don’t love donuts I’m sure you love Girl Scout cookies, because yum. If you don’t love either then you should probably navigate away right now, because it’s about to be donut cookie heaven around here. Behold: the Samoa Donut. I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in and let you wipe the drool off your keyboard.
Why yes, I just blew my diet too. But you know what? I don’t even care. It’s Girl Scout cookie season, and I can’t walk in to a grocery store without brushing by a table of pint sized cookie pushers and covering my head in shame while I clean them out. But I digress. Let’s get back to these fabulous donuts. They are soft, pillowy, a tad bit chewy and taste pretty darn close to the real thing if I do say so myself.
Last year I shared my recipe for copycat Samoa cookies, and while they saved me a fortune in $4/box cookies that year, the time has come again and I’ve got the hankering. I just learned how to make homemade donuts (without frying, I might add) so I decided that I would pull out all the bells and whistles and whip up the most heavenly, delicious, oh-my-god-I want more Samoa donuts I’ve ever tasted. And it worked, because I ate way too many and ended up pawning the rest off on my family so I can actually still fit out the door. So yeah, let’s get this party started! I’ll share the recipe at the bottom, but I wanted to let you see some process shots of taking them from plain donuts to the coconut goodness they are. After the donuts were actually made I dipped the bottoms in Candiquick and let it dry. If you aren’t a coconut fan, you can even dip the whole thing in there and eat as is!
Then of course comes the toasted coconut and caramel mixture. If you’re a Samoa fan then you know this is where the money is. That perfect balance of caramel and coconut? Heaven.
And the final touch was making the ribbons of chocolate. Glorious, rich chocolate.
Now, let’s get into the how to! Here is what you need:
For the donuts:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp. melted unsalted butter
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- Donut pan
For the topping:
- 1 package shredded coconut
- 1 package melting caramels
- 1 package chocolate candiquick
- 2 plastic sandwich bags or piping bags
- First set your oven to 350 degrees, mix your donut ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl and then fill your donut pan to almost the top with it.
Cook for 15-25 minutes or until donuts are a nice yellowish golden color and fluffy, then set them aside to cool for ten minutes. - Prepare your melted chocolate and with either some tongs or your fingers dip the lower half of each of your donuts in the chocolate. Make sure to get an even coating, then set on some parchment paper to firm up.
- Reduce your oven to 325 degrees and spread your coconut out in a single layer on a large cookie sheet. Toast it for 7-8 minutes, stir, and then put it back in for another 3-4 minutes.
- While your coconut is toasting melt your caramels as instructed on your package (you’re probably going to heat on low with 1 tsp water and stir frequently until evenly melted.)
- Now take the coconut out and mix it gently with the melted coconut.
- Top each donut with the coconut and caramel mixture. [i](Hint from a friend of mine: frequently butter your fingers so it doesn’t stick!)
- Now melt some more chocolate or use the chocolate you already have if it is still soft, put it in a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny corner of it.
- Your last step is to make chocolate “ribbons” by squeezing it out of the bag as you pass over each donut.
- Ta-da! You’re done!
