Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is set to be released on December 18th, just one day away. My little Storm Troopers at home have been waiting for this movie with great anticipation, so last week when I walked by William Sonoma and saw these Star Wars cookie cutters I couldn’t say no.
There was just one itsy bitsy problem: I am a cook, not a baker. Give me three random ingredients and a knife and I’ll make something delicious for you. Now, give me flour and baking powder and I am lost. To me, baking is a science. You add an extra 1/2 of a teaspoon of baking soda to your mix and your cookies will end up with the wrong color, flavor or texture. I usually follow my instinct when I am in the kitchen. I hardly ever follow instructions to a T. When I want to try new recipes, I tend to read the instructions twice, memorize them and start cooking without referring to them. You can’t do this when you are baking, unless you have extraordinary talent or lots of experience preparing desserts.
For this Star Wars project, I not only wanted to bake cookies but I wanted them to be vegan and gluten-free. Let the force be with me!
I tried several recipes and failed miserably. Then, I came across Erin McKenna’s book “BabyCakes Covers the Classics: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes from Donuts to Snickerdoodles”. For those that don’t know Erin, she is the owner of Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC ( originally called Babycakes), the world’s premier vegan gluten-free bakery in Lower East Side Manhattan. Her bakery focuses on the under-served people with gluten, dairy, egg, and soy sensitivities, the health-minded, and, most importantly, allergic kids who are often unable to indulge.
I reached out to Erin to make sure it was fine to share her recipe since it’s copyrighted. I forwarded her the pictures of my final product and she replied almost immediately with “Permission granted–nice work!!” . I feel honored!
Enjoy this treat, everyone! I know… I know, there is sugar in the cookies but you have to put a little bit of life into living sometimes.
DISCLAIMER: These cookies might transport you to a galaxy far far away!