>Star Wars

>

I grew up with 5 brothers, and as my therapist pointed out today: I am a tomboy.  A tomboy who almost always wears skirts and dresses, however.  But a tomboy none-the-less.  I love Star Wars, am fascinated with bodybuilding and am entirely too competitive for my own good (seriously, I was racing fully-equipped road bikes on my one-speed cruiser today).

Anyways, I was web-surfing last evening and stumbled upon the greatness that is Star Wars cookie cutters (pictured above).  And not those cheapie, metal cookie cutters – nice, spring-loaded ones (big ass grin).  I just recently learned how to pipe and flood cookies with royal icing (thanks to Bridget at Bake @ 350) and decided to use my newly acquired skills to ice these bad boys – err, bad idea.  I definitely should have started with something simpler, like, a square?

Seriously, what a disaster.  I really think it would have went over much better if I had more than one #1 tip – I was changing bags, tips and couplers like crazy, and threw in the towel after my failed attempt at decorating Boba Fett (which was a total flop because I let the sales woman at Williams-Sonoma talk me into purchasing black and white decorating pens, pft).  Don’t even get me started on trying to mix colors to achieve Yoda-green or Boba Fett-blue; my hands look like that of a small child who just finished finger painting.

Anyways, the cookies themselves (sans the icing) turned out perfect; every intricate detail of the characters that was clearly visible prior to baking was still visible once they came out of the oven, and that made me pretty happy.  I used the recipe that came with the set, fighting the urge to use my own, and it is actually a decent sugar cookie recipe (not as good as mine, but you know).  Which reminds me, one reviewer of these cookie cutters, per the Williams-Sonoma website, was very upset because he or she purchased pre-made dough and the details vanished once they came out of the oven – some people are.. not the brightest crayon in the box?  There’s a reason the set came with a recipe, you know.

So, although the icing didn’t go over so well, I am still pretty happy I snagged these guys.  Not to mention, I’m going to get myself 10-20 #1 and #2 tips and take another whack at the icing part. I’ve got to perfectly ice a Boba Fett cookie for Thom.

Star Wars cookies

2 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

*All ingredients must be at room temperature

Mixing bowl 1:
– Sift together flour and salt, set aside

Mixer:
– In a mixer equipped with the paddle feature, cream the butter on high for 2 minutes
– Reduce to medium speed and slowly add the sugar until light and fluffy
– Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute
– Add half of mixing bowl 1 at a time, stir until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl

Prepping:
– Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap
– Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours (no longer than 2 days)
– Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes before before rolling out (don’t be alarmed if your dough cracks around the edges)

Bake @ 350 for 12 minutes, rotating 180 degrees half way through

*Allow cookies to cool before icing

____________________

Royal icing

3 egg whites, room temperature
4 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
Pinch of salt
A few drops of lemon juice (optional)

Mixer:
– Mix all ingredients on low speed (except the lemon juice) in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (if you don’t have a stand mixer, use a hand mixer or whisk)
– Add lemon juice (if using) and increase speed to medium-high
– Continue beating (roughly 5-7 minutes) until the mixture forms stiff peaks

____________________

I recently discovered how cluttered my kitchen is.  And when I broke the pepper grinder yesterday, I decided it was time to get my crap together, and look what I did!

Voila!

Organization feels great.  Now, if only I could gather myself work on our linen closet..

That’s all for now, you probably won’t be hearing from me for a few days because I’m on Sam-duty for the rest of the week.  And for the record, I’d pick Sam-duty over baking any day, or baking with Sam; best of both worlds.