Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Girl Scout Cookies | Bon Appétit| Gourmet Makes |

the cookie the cookie itself the cookiedo you need a handlet me hand it to ya hey everyone I’mClaire we’re in the be a Test Kitchenand today I’m making gourmet Girl Scoutcookies this box looks like it’s beenopened guiltyroasting cookies are sold only throughactual girls children and it’s onlycertain times of the year in differentparts of the country so we had tobasically put in like a special order Idon’t know I haven’t I grow smokedleaves in a very long time I don’t seeany Girl Scouts around to like ordercookies from really good with kidsI just don’t talk to them that much Iwas a parent for one season and myfriends and I all did it together and wesold groceries I think I felt like 40boxes and I was like this is hard wewent up a down the Seahawks of ourneighborhood not that many people boughtit but like the person who one smelledlike 342 and I was never gonna do thatand then I was like I don’t think I’m sointo this all right so this has been mansuch a good cookie I love them inthere’s such a good size oh just such agood little cookie so crisp so simplethese are so good as soon as you bite inyou get some of the like aroma of themint it’s just so good it’s just soperfectly balanced caramel Delitesa kay Samoas Simoes are my favorite cuzI like coconut like as a recipedeveloper I wish that I had come up withthis shape and decoration for cookieit’s so fun and playful it looks likevery much kind of a shortbread type cookand then there’s caramel toasted coconutflakes and some kind of chocolate thingthe cookie itself is really tender butall the texture really comes from thecoconut which is very very chewy it’sreally sweet what next the tagalogcrispy cookies layered with peanutbutter and covered with a chocolatycoating how’d that happenedgod I love peanut butter in a better inchocolate looks like it’s a lighterchocolate coating than Finn mint so thedarker chocolate and this is lighter inthis cookiethere’s a round kind of shore prettycookie then like a smaller disk ofpeanut butter filling in the center andthen covered in chocolate what’s goodabout these is the saltiness of thepeanut butter oh they’re top three ohthese are new you have this scoop onlemon up crispy lemon cookies baked withinspiring messages to lift your spirit Iam creative oh my god I am a go-getterI’m a leaderI’m gutsy I am strong I love these wereyou a Girl Scoutyeah really did you did you win likesell the most yes it was you just foundthe most cookies I guess not um what’syour favorite oh yeah it came Samoas intexas they were called Samoas they’re sosweetI know they’re so sweet what flavor orflavors should I make for this episode Ithink you should go with our big threeThin Mint Samoa tag-along okay this isthe only Girl Scout cookie that mattersWow they weren’t always called snowslike when I was growing up those caramelDeliteswe won the great cookies of the worldokay so we agreed on three what are thethree men yeah agreedI feel good about those that’s what Iwould have said from the beginning thiscould not be easier by the way could dothis blindfolded so I’m gonna clean thisoff and then we’ll start to do a littleresearch let me measure these okay so athin mint four and a half centimeterdiameter Tagalongs are also four and ahalf these are all four and a half theworking theory that all of these cookiesare made out of the same cookie samedough I mean these look very verysimilarthe tag-along cookie looks like it has adepression and I’m a little bitsurprised that though at the shapebecause it’s not actually just adepression there’s like a weird littlelike buttons lip around the center Imight have to make two separate types ofcookies one that’s only Thin Mint andthen one that’s a cookie that I can usein both the sumo and the toggle on themint is definitely in the cookie it’s alittle hard to tell if it’s also in thecoating time for my favorite partreading the ingredients I’ll start withThin Mints enriched wheat flourparenthesis our niacin reduced irondiamine mononitrateI believe Allah cast a close friend ofsugar vegetable oil or apprentice Imamand palm kernel oil is ready cocoaparenthesis process with alkali closeBrenda see caramel color i fructose corncereal baking soda or less than not anartificial flavoroh is this crispy chocolate wafersdipped in a mid fudge coating whichleads me to believe that the accordingto this the mint is only in the coatingnow this says Chris but chocolateycookies made with natural oil ofpeppermint are they different sizes asone of these bootleg these havedifferent descriptions on the boxes anddifferent ingredients so this one saysmanufactured for little brownie bakerswell this one says manufactured by ABCBaker / inter baked foods LLC onecompany is probably making Samoas andone is making marketing the same cookieas caramel Delites they all have thesame base line of ingredients and thenthis one is peppermint extract this onehas peanut butter and this one hassweetened condensed milk and coconut Iwant to go see what I can find onlinemescaline grows Matheny’s in order onefin is to caramelize flash Samoathree Tagalongs okay so we picked thetop three ah how gross the cookies aremade here we aredid you know that yes we didn’t knowthat how that Tagalongs are filledthey’re not like piping the filling intothe center of the buttons they’re justcoating the whole thing little browniebakers in Louisville Kentucky OhNorth to Sioux City South Dakota is theother one Wowso I feel like I’ve been eating a littlebrownie bakers one and not a TP bakersokay so and this is saying that the mintflavor is in the coating what a greatvideo it’s so fast the press into areally dramatic wreath shape so thewreath shapes has a similar kind of wellgoing around the whole circumference ofthe wreath and that I think it’s so thatit can be filled with the caramel here’smy planI’m gonna start with making I think onekind of cookie dough and I can play forsome of it with chocolate to see if Ican get three cookies out of one doughpreparation my approach for the dough isto do something shortbread like but withkind of a sawblade textures okay so I’mstarting with the butter add the sugarand then a little bit of vanilla I’mmeasuring out the flour then twotablespoons cornstarch kosher saltbaking powder alright so here’s my doughI’m gonna chill this down put it in hereand then day two will really be aboutthe actual cookie trying to figure outmold styling and taste and texture onday one at the end of the day I madecookie dough and then I was like this tochill but then I left for two weeks soI’m gonna actually just make that sameexact same dough recipe again so I canbake it I test it out all right[Music]this has been freezing for a while it’smaybe a little thick but actually thegirl who used are a little thick this isjust a test for texture and flavor so Idon’t I’m not concerned about cuttingcookies that are the same size orthickness well that went so fast allright well I think it was the ovensfault so the cookies held their shapefor the most part but you can seethere’s this lacy edge where it’s kindof spread a little bit but that alsocould be because the oven was justreally really hot so I might have to adda little more flour cornstarch that’spretty good – the burn partwell I think I did too good a job it’svery Airy very crisp and also verytender this is a little fragment of theinterior of the tag-alongthey look similar in terms of structureactually very similar in terms ofairiness and texture my version is alittle more tender a little bit not morecrumbly but just falls apart more easilybut I love the flavor I think it’sactually pretty close on a first trythis time I’m gonna add a bit of eggwhite a little bit more flour and alittle less cornstarch my god your stashoh my god I didn’t even see it whydidn’t anyone say anything these areyour badges oh my god it’s on the frontand back oh yeah yeah all right talk tome about these here’s a square-dancingpatch thinking des sports I think itlooks good it’s looking right[Music]oh they look perfect the surfaces arepale there’s a little bit of goldenaround the edge I think it’s the rightamount of doneness that was almost 10minutesthey are basically right at four and ahalf centimeters which is where I wantedthem to be bottoms look good little alittle bit of golden I don’t like thecornstarch in it I think it’s giving itkind of a grainy texture so I mightswitch to all flour but maybe I’ll docake flour because I want them to bevery light actually think it’s very veryclose in terms of texture I might justmake those quick tweaks of swapping outcornstarch slapping in cake flour forall of the flour question if you weregonna get a badgewhat would your badge before this ismaking me realize that I’ve accomplishedlike what would your badge be for Ithink you get patience okay well that’sa good boyit’d be the leisure badge dedicatingmyself to a lifestyle of leisure Tonythe fasten furious badge I’ve watchedall oh well have the time there are onlyeight movies but I watch them all in oneweek unless you can drive like theydrive in Fast and Furious you don’t getthe fast and furious practice but Icould learn this is black cocoa we usethis for the oriole episode it is cocoathat’s been treated multiple times withan alkaline this is peppermint extractI’ve used so many times all right I’mgonna taste the dough it doesn’t reallytaste the least bit like chocolate buthas a chocolate coating so maybe that’sokay oh my god about the friendship andencouragement that’s a good one you’redoing a great job I really do value ourtime that we spend together thank youno.8 Delaney sorry that was for rotarota gets that one I don’t want thatdon’t try to just find these are throwat me don’t do itokay the dough is looking great I’mgonna pop this in the freezer and try tofigure out some kind of a mold or astamp for the tag-along cookies allrighthere’s our old friend this is thisfood-grade putty or when I mix the twocolors I don’t know what the temas treeis but then it starts just set and ithas to cure for 20 minutes and then itis a usable somewhat flexible siliconemold I mean I don’t think it’s cheatingbut I think for the best thing to dowould be to make an impression of thecookie in the mold and then use that topunch out the dough[Music]I wish I’d done this on something Icould then move because now I can’t moveit but in 20 minutes I’ll pop out thecookie and the mold should be ready inthe meantime I’ll punch out some of thecookies the center and the snow is 1centimeter in diameter so I have to finda one centimeter cutter looking for likea large ish round tip oh right I forgotabout the part where the there’s like amoat inside the wreath and the caramelsits and rests in to that I’m lookingfor a circle like this size but that’snot so sharp do you want to use mybottle the goal is to create a littlechannel running all the way around thecookie I think that this is importantfor the Samoa because there’s nowherefor the caramel to go it’s just going torun right off the cookie so I think it’simportant and giving the caramel like ananchor something to stick tothey look good they help that channelrelatively well better than I was hopingactually I don’t know if it’s going tobe enough of the space for the caramelElise think it was a really good firstpass the chocolate ones puffed up quitea bit which I’m surprised by but thatmight be because I worked that dough alot more that’s for Asamoah there’s likea channel for the caramel to run throughI know the mint I’m sorry yeah it’s justawesome okay good I didn’t know whereyou were going with thatI could take a little more chocolateflavor I love them oh really okay andit’s gonna get dipped any surely so thisis delicious okay greatings wanted o torule them allwell now it’s actually gonna be Cheetosbecause I’m gonna I think I’ll keep theblack cocoa but then add maybe somedutch process and I’ll keep thepeppermint the same I think it couldalso be drierI mean snappier so like this there’s awetness in the center yeah so okay sothat was a good test I want to come backto the mold I made of the tag along justpop that guy out it took a pretty niceimpression of it the downside is that Ihave to kind of form them one at a timeand then show them and then pop them outand then form another onethe last thing I’ll do today is isolatethe cookies from maybe three Tagalongsmake more moulds of just those and leavethem overnight[Music]tomorrow will be about forming andbaking all of the cookies and then Imight be able to move on to some ofthose coatings and caramel filling forthe Samoas and that kind of thing allright day three I feel like a lot ofthings happen on day three I want tolook at the molds that I made forTagalongs they look pretty good nicedefined button shapes what I’m gonna donow is make a two x recipe of the plaincookie base and then I’m gonna make a 1x recipe of the chocolate versionseparately on its own I do need softenedbutter though so I’m going to put thisbutter in the microwaveoh this my I can’t use this microwaveit’s too disgusting that microwave is adisgrace to this Test Kitchen it ishorrifying well this is softening I’mgonna clean out that microwave so tiredof looking at this is embarrassingyou’re gonna blur this out oh I’m takingthis straight to the dish pit this maybehas never been cleaned I’m just in themiddle of a really intense hairy processa piece of extremely cooked on tomatosauce got it this is a really goodillustration of like my problem gettingwork done it’s like I usually just endup cleaning instead oh this is the worstpart Ohah all is right in case it wasn’t clearthat was really more about anybodymanagement than anything else and thetweaks I’m doing on this one is just alittle more Coco I’m gonna add someDutch process cocoa so I’m gonna do onetablespoon of the black cocoa and onetablespoon of a good-quality Dutchprocess cocoa I’m gonna sift in thedried it smells Coco Lee and peppermintybut it seems smells like it’s in balanceokay into the fridge and that took solongthe first batch might be ready and I wasright so here’s my plan I’m gonna cutout the circles and then I’m gonnafreeze it and then any scraps that Ihave I’m gonna use to form into my moldsfor tag-along so right now I’m onlycutting circles for the reach[Music]we ever gonna find out what’s happeningwith this vodka[Music]now I’m gonna keep rolling out thechocolate oh I don’t even see the gin inthe background panic so I’m gonna do therest of this in a walk-inunder refrigeration oh my god you thankyou so cold tre it’s very cold cabbiethis jacket was so great thank you sohere’s that water bottle from yesterday[Music]this is an extremely cold baking sheetit’s so cold it hurts my handsokay these are gonna come over into theoven thank you I have all the punchedout Thin Mints and then basicallyeverything is formed I just have to makemore of the Tagalongs didn’t I give youoh don’t don’t don’t don’t no no no ohI’m finding this enjoyable andcomfortable and I’m feeling greatokay back into the freezer maybe fiveminutes he’s puffed up so much more thanthey did yesterday which is kind ofstrange I also kind of wish the channelwas a little bit deeper but I think it’sgonna be fine at least it held theindentation so I’m gonna let these coolin the meantime I’ll put the Thin Mintsin the oven all right these are a littletricky to figure out when they’re donebecause they’re already brown and so Iwon’t be able to see any browning so Ihave to kind of go by touchand I do think that they’re doneactually the spread was pretty much thesame this is the same cutter so at leastall the cookies will be the same size sothat looks great I think the dimensionslook really good homais it’s a littlebit bigger because of the spread butpretty close The Thin Mint is muchsnappier so I probably will end updehydrating the cookies for at least acouple hours they are right on the vergeof being not sweet enough but I thinkthey have a really nice cocoa flavor andgood amount of peppermint I’m happy withthat balance let me taste a wreath alsosuch a good cookie so tasty I rememberthis recipe this is a good cookie beforeI bake the final tray I am putting allof these in the dehydrator for at leasta couple of hours I want to get thatsnap now I’m gonna go into the freezerpop out the final three cookies forTagalongs and put them in the oventhese guys are ready finally these lookgood oh oh oh hot I’m in with them inthe dehydrator with the other onesand now fillings this is finely shreddeddried coconut it’s gonna bake this whilethat’s resting I’ll put togetheringredients for the caramel I’m gonnamake a caramel very similar to the one Imade for milky way but this time insteadof adding butter I’m gonna add virgincoconut oil which has a pretty strongcoconut flavor so everything else I’llkeep the same a little corn syrup heavycream my vanilla extract and some saltand the idea is that this is a prettystiff caramel that doesn’t run all overthe place look at how beautiful andevenly toasted this is this is donealright so that’s all the heavy creamnow I’m gonna add the coconut oil I’mgonna get this into a container and saveit for tomorrow and then I think thelast thing I’ll do today is make fillingfor the Tagalongs I just want to saythat this is very special homemadepeanut butter by our good friend Johnsitting right over there you brought itin the peanut butter filling in thetag-along is pretty set you can see it’salmost dough like I can manipulate itand roll it around I think my best betis to do the filling that I made forReese’s peanut butter cups so I’m gonnabeat this together with teaspoon or halfof vanilla which I’m eyeballing and abunch of kosher salt which I’m alsoeyeballingyou can see it’s looking a little bitdoe like that’s good it is a littleseparated I think that that peanutbutter was just really high in fat had alot of oil in it and so the oils arekind of exuding because it’s hot so I’mjust kind of kneading it a little bit tobring the temperature back down tastesgreat it’s just kind of chewy how muchoil did you add to that peanut butter Ikind of like eyeball itit’s a little greasy Oh like it’sdripping off of my hand I could squeezeit out of this mixturemaybe I’ll drain it got it soakingthrough faster than I can tear the maybeit’s fine I’m gonna let it set overnightand we’ll come back tomorrow I’m feelingpretty confident I’m feeling confident Idon’t have a great feeling about thispeanut butter it’s not exactly thecreamy filling that you get in a tagIlan this is a delicious crumbly peanutbutter candy it’s not gonna be right forthe taglinesI’m using my favorite peanut butterbesides John’s homemade peanut butterwhich is Smuckers natural so what Ithink I’ll do is try that samepreparation again with a lowerproportion of that sugar mixture andmaybe that’s it I let you subpoenabutter because the only ingredients arepeanuts and salt and it is a reallysalty peanut butter which is also a likeand I also didn’t mix it as much as Imixed it yesterdayhonestly needs to be sweeter I’m gonnastir in powdered sugar to tastebasically I think this is gonna work Ifeel good about that I’m gonna let itcontinue to cool and set a little bit Ithink in the meantime I can startfilling the Samoas so I’m just gonna tryto coat this guy it’s definitelysettling into that channel which is goodnow I’m worried actually that thecaramel is so sad that the coconut won’tstick to it but let’s let’s see this isjust a testoh it coated okay good well look howgood it looks now I’m just gonna go oneby one and just keep going until I’vedone all the SamoasI wanted to do them all myself but I wastold I have to have help so thank youfor cup first thank you thank you forbeing herethe strategy is no they’re not done thisis only one of three types of cookiesthat I’m doing also you’re doing yourtenured tapping out oh my god you’rehere I fear very you’re I think you’regood sir no I think you’re good I thinkyou’re good no I’m just doing a littlefinishing touch I think it looks greatokay let’s dip it how do you feel aboutthe way you treated people look Iappreciate everyone’s eagerness to helpme but I just think it’s better foreveryone if I work alone this is alwayshow it was with group projects I preferto work alone look I’m making a lot ofcookies I could have made like six andwould have been fine but I chose to makea lot the last thing I want to do beforeI move on to the chocolate stage is fillthe Tagalongs this process should be alot faster hopefully this is just amatter of creeping and spreading thespilling onto the cookie[Music]all right look at my Girl Scout cookiesnow time for my least favorite part it’sall help me I don’t want to do thechocolate part it’s hard and like it’sgonna be so hard to get these coated ina thin layer Rhoda hi I need your adviceso you want me to tell you don’t have totemper the chocolate yeah kind of thatwas kinda what I was looking for but Ithink here’s the idea so my idea was ifI add up it’s an additional cocoa butterwhich is very solid at room temp tomelted chocolate it’s kind of like acheap for tempering but because thecoconut butter is very liquid at roomtemp it thins out the chocolate whichwill make it easier to coat in a thinlayer all right I’m melting thechocolate this is the milk chocolate I’mreally lost being they get the differentthe cookies are getting different kindof chocolate chocolate with peppermintextract and the caramel Delitesand Thank You Rhodaso the idea is that this cocoa butterwill melt and when the cocoa butter ismelted it’s very liquid and it willincrease the fluidity of the chocolatewhich will make it easier to in row sothat’s that’s the idea there I’m gonnastart with the Tagalongsso okay that worked well wait should Ijust be dipping them the whole way youguys I dropped it in fell think I shouldjust be dipping them two four six eightten twelve fourteen so these are gonnago into the fridge I’m moving on toSamoas so I just to be careful not todrop them in the chocolate all right[Music]this is the last one I dropped one theone that we did in slo-mo was the one Idraw so I’m sure we’ll see that replay[Music]everything else is looking great here’swhat I want to do before I chill thesethe chocolate I think is that a goodpointthickness wise where I’ll get reallyclean lines if I pipe it so I’m gonnamake mommy the corn eh okay that was thelast one I had enough chocolate but Ifeel good I’m happy with the way theylook the last step in this process is inroving The Thin Mints and I’m also gonnaadd my peppermint extract to thischocolate you guys can we do Cadburyeggs look how shiny and like beautifuland mirror finish they look they’ll goMatt once they set there looks so flatand even and I think that the coating isgonna be just the right thickness Ithink my favorites are the Thin Mintsbut they all look great I’m gonna letthese set overnight because I want moreof my friends to be proud of me in themeantime this is my stash this lookslike it’s made for a child look at howsmall this is is this an actual GirlScouts badge Wow look at this I readthis come fromI used to iron on patches of stuff backin my bedazzled encase oh I think it’son there oh yeahthat’s on thereshould we write truth test kitchen I[Music]can’t believe I just did this I just getreally focused on tasks sometimes andthen lose perspective that I just spendthe last 40 minutes working on this weall got to go home it’s dark yeah uhthat was fun that brought me backI love days like today where I get tostart off having already done the thingand all I get to do is wear my fun sashreally excited about these um oh no theygot a little there was like a little bitof fat bloom they won’t affect theflavor it just makes the finish not assmooth looking so I’m gonna start withTagalongsI love the cross-section it looks veryuniform I like the amount of peanutbutter relative to the amount of cookiethat looks really goodall right look at this similarity Iguess that’s what happens when you makethe mold out of the real cookie is thatall of the elements feel reallyharmonious it’s not like you taste thecookie first and then the peanut butterand then the chocolate it all marriestogether and the balance is great and Ithink it’s really goodI love how smooth and thin they arecolors are very similar – I’m glad I usedark chocolate that was the right callI’m really pleased with how thin andeven the coating this hmm could I likeI’m a nice saltiness at the end I reallylike the balance of peppermint tochocolate this feels like a little moreof a grownup thin mint just because it’sless sweet what I think I nailed withthis one is the proportions thethickness of the coating on the bottomthe stripes on the top the amount ofcoconut and I’m happy that my versionhas more caramel this version has reallygood shoe cookie kind of breaks downmixes with the caramel and the coconutto get this chewy texture and thenamount of sweetness I think is reallynice very happy with these have you gotall of them this was really fun for Bowlhow’s it look so Lola did you like totaste a cookie the texture is reallycool like melts right away and doesn’thave a lot of chewy caramel mm-hmmin an ideal world what gourmet makesdoes is create something that tastes theway you remember the original tastingwhen you were a kid you know you madethis way really I know that’s acomplimentthank you I don’t want to go anywherewearing this though I don’t want to goin the elevator I just say that we’regonna go downstairs I’m being forced togo downstairs and sell these cookies theVA office so here we go are we oh my godyou guys it’s the puffy paint is notquite dry I’m sticking to itmom could have just brought the orderform to her work I couldn’t stay home ohmy god you guys I’m doing it again uhit’s stuck again oh here we go hifriends you want try one okay Oh peoplereally love a 10100 I’m really glad goodhilariousmy cache really like it with the puffypaint I like to try cooking tag-alongpeanut butter no no you don’t want thatno no maybe trying cinnamon I lovebanana taste things are so tender I knowmaybe like really that was kind of thecrew consensus – Oh God so you keepsticking to it my natural habitat longenough this is gonna go in our gourmetmakes museum along with my Mentos dryingrack and overall this whole experiencewas kind of nostalgic and brought meback even more than the average boom itmakes which is already pretty nostalgicthanks to the Girl Scouts for giving usa preview of the cookies before they goon sale in New York and buy Girl Scoutcookies from your local Girl Scoutsmoney goes to a good cause teachesentrepreneurship and teaches leadershipand I appreciated all the support frommy Test Kitchen colleagues and friendsat ba so that was great – and John’speanut butter thanks John here’s how youmade gourmet Girl Scout cookies to makea plain dough in a medium bowl was oneand a half cups of cake flour twotablespoons cornstarch one teaspoonkosher salt and one teaspoon bakingpowder beat two sticks of roomtemperature unsalted butter until smoothadd a half a cup powdered sugar and beatuntil light at a large room temperatureegg white and two teaspoons vanillaextract and beat until fluffy and smoothadd the dry ingredients and mix unloadsuntil combined form the dough into adisc and chill until cold to make thechocolate dough repeat the same doughrecipe having all the quantities andwhisking 1 tbsp black cocoa and 1 tbspDutch process cocoa into the dryingredients instead of the cornstarchadd a quarter teaspoon peppermintextract to the dough along with thevanilla extract chill until cold in themeantime make the other cookiecomponents toast 1 cup of finelyshredded unsweetened dried coconutflakes in a 350 degree fahrenheit oventossing once until golden brown all overset aside to cool to make the peanutbutter filling for the Tagalongs placeone cup of natural smooth peanut butterin the bowl of a stand mixer add a slashof vanilla and a pinch of salt and beatbriefly to combine bring 1/2 cup sugarand 3 tablespoons water to a boilstirring with the heatproof spatula todissolve the sugar boil until the sugarsyrup reaches 348 fahrenheit turn themixer on medium high and slowly streamall but a couple of tablespoons of thesugar syrup into the peanut buttertransferred to a bowl and let cool thenstir and more powdered sugar to sweetenif desired to make the caramel for theSamoas combine three-quarters of a cupsugar 2 tablespoons corn syrup and 2tablespoons of water in a small saucepanand stirover medium heat to dissolve for you toa boil and cook throwing the pot andwashing down the sides with a wet pastrybrush until the mixture turns a deepamber so at least three and a half a cupof heavy cream stirring and taking carebecause the mixture will stutterfollowed by two tablespoons of virgincoconut oil stir until the mixture issmooth cook until the mixture reaches250 Fahrenheit then pour the caramelinto a bowl without scraping the bottomor sides let it cool completely to formthe cookies roll out the chilled cookiedough’s between pieces of parchmentpaper until you have one-eighth of aninch thick slabs chill until cold forthe Samoas working with half of theplain dough cut wreaths the same size asthe Samoas using a round cutter for thelarger circle on the wide end of apastry tip for the smaller circle anduse an appropriately sized bottle top toimprint a shallow center channel runningaround each wreath chill the cookies forthe Thin Mints use a circle cutter topunch out cookies the size of Thin Mintstransfer to a baking sheet it’s facingevenly and chill for the tagalogs usefood grade silicone putty to makeseveral molds of isolated tag-alongcookies that have been scraped andcleaned of any peanut butter filling achocolate coating let the molds cure popout the cookies then fill the molds withthe remaining plain dough freeze thedome until solid and pop the cookies outof the molds onto a parchment linedbaking sheet bake all the cookies on thecenter rack and a 350 degree fahrenheitoven until very lightly cold them on thebottoms remove from the oven and letcool completelyto assemble the cookies use a smalloffset spatula to spread a small amountof the peanut butter filling into thiscentral depression of the Tagalongs worka small amount of cold caramel onto thesurface of the wreath filling thechannel and spreading out a caramelacross the entire surface and a thinlayer dip the caramel side in thetoasted coconut and set the cookiesaside to make a chocolate coatingcombine about 12 ounces of milkchocolate disks and one point two ouncesof cocoa butter cut into bits in amedium heat proof Bowl and stir over alarge saucepan filled with about an inchof gently simmering water until it’smelted and completely smooth dip thetag-along cookies into the milkchocolate mixture to enroll completelythen allow the excess to drip off andplace the cookies on a chilled steel padlined baking sheet and chill until setif the bottoms of the Samoa cookies inthe same milk chocolate mixture andpress onto a chilled still cut linedbaking sheet 5 thin lines of chocolateall across the coconut coated surfacesof the Samoas chill until set for theThin Mints combine about 8 ounces ofdark chocolate wine 8 ounces of cocoabutter and more peppermint extract totaste in a medium heat proof ball andmelt over a double boiler as before dipthe Thin Mints in the chocolate mixturelike you did the tagalogs and chilluntil setI have to show both to do something youcleaned it looks amazing thank you Idon’t know what went on in thismicrowave but it was horrifying