Tomorrow is Star Wars Day! I remember watching the original Star Wars trilogy at a young age, mostly because my older brother was completely obsessed. I liked the Star Wars movies then, and I love them now – though I must admit that I have never seen (nor do I have any desire to ever see) the prequel trilogy. When I was little, I was less interested in Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader. The characters I loved consisted of R2D2, C3PO, and my all-time favorite Star Wars character…Chewbacca! Chewie still holds a special place in my heart, so it only made sense that we celebrate Star Wars Day by baking a batch of these adorable, and delicious, Wookiee Cookies!
When I informed our little nugget of our upcoming baking task, she glanced at me with a confused expression. “What’s a wookiee?” While she knows who Yoda is, that’s about as far as she’s come in her Star Wars knowledge, thus far. My husband was more than happy to roam around the house making wookiee noises (which our daughter adored and often requested), but it was also important for her to know what a wookiee looks like. After all, we were going to be creating their likeness in cookie-form. π So, we sat down to watch a couple of Chewbacca compilation videos on YouTube.
I’m happy to report that our little nugget developed an immediate fondness for Chewie, just like I had when I was a little girl. I’m sure it helped that she was able to assist with baking, and decorating, a batch of her very own Wookiee Cookies! Though her favorite part was actually gobbling up all of their deliciousness, as I’m sure you could have guessed. π
Wookiee Cookies
Ingredients:
- 3/4 Cup Butter, Melted
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Molasses
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 tsp. Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp. Cinnamon
- 3-4 Cups Flour (+ more for rolling out dough)
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- White Chocolate Chips
Instructions:
- Start by adding all of the wet ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the mixture. Start by adding 3 cups of flour, and mix to combine. If the dough does not start forming into a ball while it is mixing, slowly add more flour. Stop adding flour as soon as the dough starts to form a ball.
- Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead by hand for a minute, to insure that all of the ingredients have been thoroughly combined.
- Separate the dough into two balls. Sprinkle with flour and wrap each dough ball with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350Β° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
- Working with one ball of dough at a time, place the dough on a lightly-floured surface. Roll the dough to approximately 1/4″ thickness. Using a gingerbread man cookie-cutter, cut out the wookiees. Place the wookiees on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. These cookies do not really spread while baking, so you can place the cookies fairly close together on the baking sheet.
- Now comes the most important part…you have to give your wookiee cookies a furry-looking exterior. This can be done by gently scoring the entire cookie with a butter knife, in a random pattern.
- Bake the cookies for approximately 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack, to cool completely.
- Once the cookies have cooled, it’s time to add the utility belts to each wookiee. Melt approximately 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Place the melted chocolate into a cake decorating bag (fitted with a small round tip). Carefully pipe a line of chocolate across each wookiee’s chest (starting from the left armpit, piping up to the right shoulder).
- Before the semi-sweet chocolate sets, carefully place a few white chocolate chips on top of the line of melted semi-sweet chocolate. Our little nugget was delighted to help with the finishing touches!
- Once the utility belts are complete, let the melted chocolate harden. Feel free to have a little taste test while you’re waiting. π
These wookiee cookies can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.
I came across this clever cookie idea over on Twin Dragonfly Designs. Heather links to this Gingerbread Wookiee Cookie recipe that she found on BuzzFeed. I adjusted the recipe ever so slightly, due to the fact that with just three cups of flour, my dough was incredibly sticky and gooey, and did not even come close to forming a ball. Thus the reason I suggest using 3-4 cups of flour instead. I found my dough required closer to 4 cups.
These Wookiee Cookies are a cute and tasty treat! The gingerbread flavor is not over-powering, and the semi-sweet and white chocolate add the perfect amount of additional sweetness. If you have a Star Wars fan in your household, I’m sure they would be delighted to celebrate Star Wars Day with a few of these cookies, and a nice cold glass of milk!
HAPPY STAR WARS DAY! MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!
