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.
I just made these for an Easter potluck tomorrow and they are so good! Mind if I link your recipe on my blog?
aww aww aww You are so sweet to even ask. I would be honored! 🙂
I just made the Samoa and PB babies and have died and gone to heaven!! I don’t have any allergies, but wanted healthier desserts!! YUM!! Thank you!!
I just made these! We’ve been making our own Lara Bars lately and love them. I have not introduced my 1 year old to nuts, so this recipe was perfect. The flavor is dead on and my toddler is loving it! Thank you 🙂
Aw I’m so excited you tried them!! 🙂
Samoas Fudge Babies! bc the ingredients on the girl scout box are scary!!
I subscribed via email!
I know graham crackers are not the healthiest food item, but I tried spreading some of this on a graham cracker and was about in heaven. The texture was like a candy bar! Thanks for the wonderful work you do.
Mmm that sounds really good!
So the whole recipe making 3 samoa babies and one serving size is 3 samoa babies? Just double checking
I can’t say how many babies the recipe makes; it depends on how big you roll them.
Delicious! My 16 month old was literally biting my fingers to get more!
I just made them! The mixture of ingredients is delicious! But I can’t get them to stay together..? Is there a trick?!
They should stay together… what type of dates did you use?
maybe I should add more?
I’m not sure what Californian dates are. Can you try looking for Sunmaid? And what food processor did you use?
Sunsweet brand pitted dates are marked “Californian” on the label. I just tried making a batch with them because they were the only dates our Super Target carries and I haven’t had a chance to get to the “hippy store” (what my husband calls the natural foods market) with the winter weather. Mine fell right apart too. Try sticking them back together with some almond butter, which is what I used. I’ve also done coconut oil when they get crumbly. Or you could try mixing in a stickier fruit, like raisins, until you run out of those dates. Waste not want not!
I used Californian
I love Samoas, they were always my favorite Girl Scout Cookie that my mother always bought them for me! That was when I was younger though, now that I’m more mature and aware of the food I consume that I no longer eat Girl Scout Cookies (even though we have pack left of Thin Mints in the freezer that I wish I could just eat all to myself), and I have to admit that I do miss them from time to time. But now that I came along this recipe, I am ready to give them a shot and try to make them! I’m hoping they turn out and taste just like the Girl Scout Samoas (not exactly like them, but you know what I mean!) 😀