October 17, 2011

 A few weeks ago, I splurged on a boxed set of Star Wars themed cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma. This set of Star Wars™ Heroes & Villains Cookie Cutters includes the heads of Boba Fett, Yoda, a Stormtrooper, and Darth Vader. Ever since, the kids have been demanding cookie cut-outs in their lunches. So far, I’ve made Vanilla Yoda Cookies and Chocolate Darth Vader Cookies.

The recipes below are for no muss, no fuss cookies. As glorious as the Star Wars cookies on the Williams Sonoma website look, I was not about to make several different colours of icing and pipe them onto the load of cookies I planned to bake for the lunchboxes. Instead, I coloured the cookie dough green for Yoda, and settled for the brown of a chocolate cookie for Darth. Before baking, I topped each cookie with coloured sugar crystals to match. By eliminating the icing, and restraining yourself with the sugar crystals, you’re eliminating a goodly amount of empty calories from the kids’ lunches.

 If you’re looking for some magical inspiration for things to do with Star Wars cookies like these, I suggest you check out the special Star Wars section of Just Jenn’s fabulous website. Her Green Tea yoda cookies are sophisticated and chic (I’m planning on making them for my next ladies’ night!) I also like the way she uses these cookies and others like them as cupcake toppers – perfect for birthday parties! Moreover, her Star Wars Party ideas are fabulous: Han Solo encased in carbonite (jello) and Death Star watermelons! So, after you try these simple guys, get yourself on over to her site!

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Yoda Sugar Cookies
 makes 60+ cookies (I freeze half)

1 1/3 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbs milk
2 tsp vanilla
several drops of green food colouring
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour
green sugar crystals/sprinkles

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 Darth Vader Chocolate Cookies
makes 50-60 cookies (I freeze half)

1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups brown (or white) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup cocoa powder
black sugar crystals/sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Cream your butters and sugars before adding the remainder of the wet ingredients. Add food colouring to the yodas, keeping in mind that the cookies will lose some colour during the baking process – Go dark! Then, sift in the blended dry ingredients. Once the dough forms into a ball, divide it in half and wrap each half in plastic film. Freeze one half of the recipe for later use. Refrigerate the other half of the dough for an hour or so (if you can wait that long!). Roll refrigerated dough to between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch. To make things quick and easy, I roll my dough between waxed paper sheets. Cut and press cookies, and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle cookies lightly with coloured sugar sprinkles. Bake for 7-9 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

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