Another Option for Wookiee Cookies
Robin Davis' "Star Wars" cookbook was intended for beginner cooks, but more advanced bakers will have fun playing around with Rosanna Pansino's creations on her popular Nerdy Nummies series on YouTube. Many of her projects require equipment and skills that most kids don't have, but my boys are obsessed with watching her make playful Minecraft, Mario and Despicable Me treats. (We made Angry Bird cupcakes more than a year ago, and they still talk about them.)
Due to copyright restrictions, Pansino's first cookbook, "The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us," (Atria, $29.99) doesn't have any of the branded characters featured in her online videos. But she still creates inventive sweets such as cauldron cake pops, video controller cookies or a zombie brain cake. We tried to make Pansino's Wookiee Cookies from one of her videos last week, but due to a combination of an unclear recipe and some user error, they fell apart. (We made Wookiee Balls instead. You can watch the video of our attempt at austin360.com.)
However, the decorating technique — piping melted chocolate and topping it with small white chocolate chips or squared white Candy Melts — can create Chewbacca’s signature over-the-shoulder ammo belt on any cookie.
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Got your Wookiee cookies ready?
In anticipation of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” The Force is on just about everybody’s mind — and that includes Robin Davis, the author of the original official “Star Wars” cookbook.
It was the late 1990s and Davis, who lives in Ohio now, was working as a food writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. Chronicle Books was publishing several “Star Wars” books in anticipation of the prequels that came out starting in 1999. “They needed a cookbook with a very quick turnaround,” she says.
“We developed everything in about six weeks. There was a lot of recipe development, but the best part was coming up with the names” for dishes that included Hoth Chocolate, Yoda Soda, Boba Fett-uccine, Han-burgers and Obi-Wan Kebabs.
“’Wookiee Cookies’ was so catchy, and the photo was so identifiable,” she says. “It was a natural choice” to grace the cover.
Like many recipes in the book, the cookie recipe is quite basic and targeted toward young cooks who are just developing their cooking skills. “It’s just a chocolate chip cookie with some cinnamon,” she says. “We wanted something warm and fuzzy and familiar, like Chewbacca himself.”
In the early days of the Internet, there were fewer people sharing recipes like they are now. Google churns up more than 250,000 results if you search for “Wookiee cookies.”
Cooking things based on movies and video games is much more popular now. “The goal was for it to be a children’s book, not necessarily to look like things from the movie. It could teach them how to make French toast, pancakes, eggs in a hole, but to give it a fun ‘Star Wars’ name.”
The Original Wookiee Cookies
Our attempt to make Wookiee Cookies with another recipe just didn't work out, so instead, I thought I'd feature Robin Davis' original Wookiee Cookie, which appeared in "The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes." Many of you might have had this book or made these cookies during your own younger Jedi days.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Stir with the wooden spoon until well mixed. Set aside.
Put the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in another mixing bowl. Using the electric mixer set on high speed, beat together until well blended and creamy, about three minutes. (You can do this with a wooden spoon, but it will take longer.) Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and stir with the wooden spoon until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Scoop up a rounded tablespoonful of the dough and drop onto a baking sheet. Be sure to leave about 1 inch between the cookies because they spread as they bake.
Using pot holders, put the baking sheets in the oven. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Again, using pot holders, remove the baking sheets from the oven. Lift the cookies from the baking sheets with a spatula, and place on cooling racks. Let cool completely.
— From "The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes" by Robin Davis (Chronicle, $18.99)
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