Star Wars Cookies! A Guest Post by Maggie Cats

As previously noted, I can't bake my way out of a paper bag unless you like your baking products heavily smoked with a side of whatever it is that comes out of a fire extinguisher.  My friend Maggie, however, is a fantastic baker that shares my love of sci fi.  I tasted her awesome Star Wars cookies a few weeks ago, and she offered to write a guest post about them.  You can visit Maggie at her personal blog, Grasping for Reality, or at her TV blog, We're Wicket Smaht.  But seriously, make the cookies. 
 Enjoy!!  - Scienter___________________________________________________________________

Some things in this world were just made for each other. Peanut butter and jelly, Indiana Jones and his hat, Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. And now we can add Scienter and blogging to the list. I don’t know about you, but the things that she makes for this cooking blog constantly astound me. And she just whips them up at home in the evenings after working hard all day (trust me, I know since I work with her). 

But there is one thing missing from this blog: baked goods. 

Where are the cupcakes, the cookies, the pies, the muffins?

According to Scienter, she “doesn’t bake.” Now riddle me this, gentle readers. How can a woman who can knock out some uber-complicated Middle Eastern-Japanese-Creole fusion meal not be able to cream butter and sugar, throw in some flour, and slap on some icing? It’s a mystery and I blame her mother. 

But luckily for you, I invited myself to guest-post on her blog about my most recent baking adventure. I would call myself an amateur cook at best (it’s only really been in the past year since I remodeled my kitchen that I have started really cooking), but I am a champion baker. My mother has been prepping me for this my whole life—she wanted to make sure I was properly trained in the baking arts. You start small with boxed brownie mix as a preteen, and by age 30 graduate to fully taking over the holiday baking duties. 

My most recent baking project combined two of my favorite things: cookies and fandom, specifically, Star Wars. Thanks to my Aunt, I recently came into possession of some Star Wars cookie cutters by way of Williams Sonoma. And it was SO ON. 

I used my family’s classic sugar cookie recipe, known as Mom’s Sugar Cookies (referring to my maternal great-grandmother). Everything proceeds as normal: cream the butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, and then the dry ingredients, followed by chilling the dough for two hours. And then the fun part: rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies!

You can pause for a lightsaber battle using your rolling pin if you like.

The Star Wars cookie cutters are a little cumbersome, I have to confess. They have a lot of small corners which can make actually getting the cut-out  cookie off the rolling surface a bit tricky, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the designs that are stamped on turned out after baking. Sometimes as  cookies rise during baking, you can lose detail, but these kept the design very well. 

So voila! Star Wars sugar cookies.  Delicious, nerdy, and made of awesome. 

May the force be with you.

 Mom's Sugar Cookies (yield 3 doz.)

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and sugar; add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Beat well. Sift the dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture. Beat until creamy. Chill for 2 hours. Roll out with holiday cutters. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes until lightly brown.