Also known as…
Samoas Fudge Babies!
No, not the spicy Indian potato thing. That’s a samosa. This is a samoa. You don’t want to get the two confused! 
Awhile back, I posted a recipe for Raw Thin-Mint Brownies.
In that post, I vowed to someday try making raw samoas, my favorite girl-scout cookies as a child.
Gosh, my children are pretty.
Certainly prettier than those poor Thin Mint Brownies!
Samoas Babies
- Packed 1/2 cup dates (90g)
- 2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut (30g)
- 1/16 tsp pure vanilla extract
- scant 1/8 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp chocolate chips or bar (14-28g)
Put all the ingredients together in your food processor, and blend. (I like to make 1/2 a batch and use the Magic Bullet short cup.) You can reserve a few of the chocolate chips to add, post-blending, if you so desire. See below for nutrition information.
Nutrition Facts for Samoas Babies:
Serving Size: 45 grams (the size of a Larabar)
- 175 calories
- 8 g fat
- 2 g protein
- 5 g fiber
- 0 g added sugars
When I set out to create a fudge baby version of the famous Samoas girl-scout cookie, the first thing I did was look up ingredients for the real Samoas.
Do you know what I found?
It wasn’t pretty: Sugar, vegetable oil (partially-hydrogenated palm kernel and/or cottonseed oil, soybean and palm oil), enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), coconut, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk (condensed milk, sugar), cocoa, sorbitol, glycerin, invert sugar, cocoa processed with alkali,cornstarch, salt, caramelized sugar, dextrose, soy lecithin, carrageenan, leavening, natural and artificial flavor
Anyone want to count how many times some form of sugar is listed in there? (Answer: six)
Sounds more like a science experiment than a cookie. Does anyone else find it upsetting that they’re allowed to produce such cookies and feed them—in bulk—to unsuspecting young girls (not to mention the rest of the population that buys the cookies from the scouts). I just don’t understand…
Why do they have to make junk?
Healthy food can taste delicious, as I say in my About Me page.
So why don’t they make a healthier cookie for the girl scouts to sell? Unfortunately, I know the answer: cost. It’s cheaper for companies to mass-produce cookies with chemical-y ingredients and preservatives than it’d be for them to use real, natural ingredients (i.e. ingredients found in cookies that people would bake at home!). Who ends up suffering? The consumers.
Don’t get me wrong…
I’m not saying that eating a girl-scout cookie every now and then is going to hurt you. I truly believe it’s perfectly healthy for people to occasionally eat unhealthy foods (as long as they don’t stress about it afterwards). Stress over achieving a “perfect” diet seems far worse for one’s health than eating processed junk every once in a while. No, what I’m upset about is the fact that manufacturers are allowed to produce said processed junk in the first place! Yes, America is a free country. But does this mean companies have the right to add to their products whatever unhealthy (and, in some cases, dangerous) ingredients they desire? And then they aggressively target these products towards children?! Marketing and deceptive advertising strategies can fool even the most well-intentioned consumers.
Ah, but I digress. Let’s get back to the fun stuff, shall we?
These are actually nut-free!
I improved upon the recipe after the photo-shoot, which is why the babies in the photos have nuts. (Please don’t take that sentence the wrong way.) Do they taste exactly like samoas cookies? No, but that wasn’t the taste/texture I set out to achieve when making these. They’re not raw samoas, they’re raw samoas fudge babies!
So what do they taste like?
Well, imagine a Samoa-flavored Larabar.
And click for a list of all the Homemade Larabar Flavors.
Coconut and dates— mmmming 🙂
1. I’m totally making these because I LOVE samoas!
2. Extra pumped that these are like larabars… You knocked it outta the park with this one!
Aww thanks!
…but if it’s outta the park, I wanna know who the lucky person is that catches that fly (fudge baby) ball ;).
I am totally making these asap! I always loved Samoas when I was a girl scout. yesss, awesome recipe!!
Those look wonderful! As soon as Easter comes (and I shall again eat chocolate), I will have to make these.
Also, I really wish I had been a girl scout as a younger girl; if I had been, I’d push for vegan/healthier versions of their cookies (not because I really adore(d) them, but because it would be better for animals/people/the environment). I am tempted to start some sort of campaign for it at some point in the future.
You could probably put the Girl Scouts out of business with those.
Finally, a samoa that will actually be satisfying! Honestly, I don’t even like the way girl scout cookies taste anymore because they are so artificial. I really wish they would promote a healthy balance and at least use real ingredients in their cookies!
umm yum!
it’s so perfect bec the girl scouts are out selling their cookies and I love the flavor but not the ingredients! love these! 🙂
yummy! Definitely want to make these asap 😉
These sound great and quick, however I really must say that Rawdorable’s raw samoas are the original raw samoa and worth the effort to make.
Oh I have seen her raw Samoas! They are GORGEOUS!! I only wish I could say from experience that they’re delicious too… someday I’m going to have to make them! As I said in my post, these babies aren’t supposed to be raw samoas per se, more like samoa-flavored Larabars. I’d never even attempt to challenge Shannon’s brilliance in coming up with a REAL, lifelike raw samoa ;). I bow down to her lol.
love love love this recipe! love making raw samoas 🙂 but thin mints our my all time fav 😉