Every year we buy a couple of new things for our May the Fourth be with You Party.  Last year’s purchases were these really cool Star Wars (Gingerbread) Cookie Cutters, and the Death Star Cutting Board/Serving Platter pictured above.  (Note the cookie cutter set also includes a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett)

Since I am not particularly good with an icing bag, we decided to add the color and flavors into the cookie dough instead of decorating the cookies.

Though this created another dilemma.  We have other Star Wars patterned cookie cutters as well, and I have tried to use them to make imprinted sugar cookies before.  But they never turned out well. The imprints always disappeared while the cookies were baking.   For this batch I learned the trick:  The dough has to be cold.  Cold when you cut the cookies and cold when you put the cookies in the oven.   It made all the difference!

Needed:

You can make the sugar cookies from scratch or buy finished cookie dough from the store. If you are making them from scratch, here is a great recipe from All Recipes: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/10402/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/

• 1.5 Cups Softened Butter
• 2 Cups White Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 5 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Salt

Things you’ll need whether you make cookies from scratch or buy dough:

• Green and Yellow Food Coloring
• Mint and Banana Flavor
• Black Food (Decorating) Gel (or Black Food Coloring if you can find it)
• Milk Chocolate Chips (as much as you want 🙂
• Dark Chocolate Chips (as much as you want!)

• Star Wars (Gingerbread) Cookie Cutters
• Cookie Sheets
• Parchment Paper
• Large Bowl
• A Few Extra Bowls
• Spatula

How To:

• In a large bowl, stir together butter and sugar until smooth.
• Beat in eggs and vanilla.
• Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Divide dough/batter into 4 bowls (1 for each flavor) 
• For Banana and Mint flavors: Add a few drops each of flavoring and food coloring. Mix well. 
• For Chocolate Flavors: Melt chocolate in microwave. Mix into dough. You might also need to add some extra flour to stiffen the batter (to compensate for the liquid chocolate). 
• For the Dark Chocolate Darth Vader’s we also added black gel into the batter to darken the color.
• Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
• If you add a lot of chocolate, the dough might harden too much if you put it in the fridge, if that happens, just microwave for a few seconds to warm it enough to roll out. 
• Roll out dough on floured surface (1/4″ or so thick).
• Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. 
• Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased parchment paper covered cookie sheets.
• Put cut cookies in fridge for at least an hour, then straight from fridge into the oven. (If the cookies sheets won’t fit in your fridge, it might be worth moving them to plate to cool)
• While the cookies are in the fridge, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven.
• Cool completely.

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