May the Fourth Be with You

This past weekend contained a significant day of celebration.

Well, yeah, there was Cinco de Mayo, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

This past Friday was May the fourth.

Star Wars Day.

I’ve warned you in the past that I’m a gigantic dork.

For those who are less nerdy than I, let me take a moment to explain. “May the fourth” is a pun on the popular Star Wars salutation “May the force be with you”. It became jokingly dubbed Star Wars Day by fans, but quickly became recognized by LucasArts themselves.

Told you… dork. Proud of my dorky nature, but still… big dork.

And I celebrate via the deliciousness of cookies.

This is not my first time with the Star Wars Cookie Cutters, but last time was a Darth Vader only show in a celebration of The Empire. Star Wars day needed the whole cookie cutter crew, but I didn’t want Yoda to be chocolate like the Vaders.

I wanted him to be green.

Dying chocolate cookies green doesn’t really work, so it was time for some standard sugar cookies. The chocolate cookie recipe for Vader was amazing, so I figured I might as well go back to Bake at 350 for a reliable, simple sugar cookie recipe.

I made a batch of the Stormtroopers first… and came out disappointed.

I generally hate cut out sugar cookies because in order to keep their shape, they have a tendency to be hard. Flavourless. The Stormtrooper was not flavourless, but it was hard.

And it was totally my fault. I rolled them out too thin. When they were all already cut out and I was lifting them to put on the cookie sheet, I realized I went a little thin, but was too lazy to re-roll the cookies and hoped for the best.

I shouldn’t have been lazy.

The Yodas came next and I watched my rolling carefully to ensure they were thicker than the Troopers, but no thinner than a quarter-inch. They were perfect, tender in texture yet still maintaining the imprint of Yoda’s face.

To be honest, the chocolate cookies are still my favourites, but maybe that’s just my dark side coming out. Now I just need more Star Wars cookie cutters!

May the fourth be with you!

Star Wars Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Bake at 350

If using food colouring to dye the cookies, make sure to use gel and not liquid food colouring, as the liquid food colouring can water down the dough.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold & cut into chunks
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
gel food colouring (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.
The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling. (If adding food colouring, add a small amount to the dough just as it starts to come together, and continue kneading until the colour is distributed. Wrap and put in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to compensate for the heat from the extra kneading.)
Roll onto a floured surface, approx. a quarter-inch thick, and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and freeze shaped cookies for 5 minutes.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.