Description
Don’t be fooled, these are not gingerbread! Instead, these cookies are flavored with delicious mocha, a new flavor I decided to try for this recipe! They’re vegan, crisp, deliciously flavored, and super fun to make.
Pair these vegan wookie cookies with a glass of Bantha boba milk tea, and you’ll be set.
Click here for my Butterfly Pea Milk Tea recipe.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 sticks (16 tablespoons or 224g) – vegan butter, softened at room temp
- 1 cup (120g) – powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 ¼ cups (288g) – all-purpose flour, leveled and sifted, see notes
- ½ teaspoon – salt
- ¼ cup (30g) – cocoa powder, I used dutch-processed https://amzn.to/3vJsaTl
- 1 tablespoon – instant espresso https://amzn.to/3tfZI9O
- 1 teaspoon – vanilla extract
Toppings:
- Green fondant, I used Wilton (vegan friendly) https://amzn.to/33jhfDn
- Whole almonds or pecans
- ½ of a Baker’s chocolate, melted https://amzn.to/3th3Y9c
- ¼ of a vegan white chocolate bar, melted, see notes
See notes for more options.
Equipment:
- Food scale https://amzn.to/3vBZewk
- Fine mesh sieve
- Mixing bowls
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- Plastic wrap
- Rolling pin
- Gingerbread man cookie cutter
- Fork
- Thin spatula
- Parchment paper or Silpat mat
- 2 large baking pan
- Wire cooling rack
- Piping bags
Instructions
Making the cookies:
- Before starting, remove butter from the fridge and allow it to soften at room temp. About 20-30 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside until ready to use.
- In another small bowl, combine the vanilla extract and instant espresso. Mix until dissolved. Set aside until ready to use.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a separate mixing bowl), cream the softened butter and powdered sugar at low speed. Mix until creamy and well combined.
- Next, reduce the speed and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until all the ingredients have been combined into a dough.
- Transfer the cookie dough onto a work surface and lightly knead it until it becomes a smooth and cohesive dough.
- Shape the cookie dough into a 1-inch thick disc. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 1 hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper, or with a Silpat mat.
- Transfer the chilled dough to a work surface and allow it to soften for about 15-20 minutes at room temp. Don’t allow it to get too soft, as it might stick to the work surface and it’ll be harder to work with. Just soft enough to roll out.
- Generously flour the work surface, and remove the cookie dough from the plastic wrap. Lightly flour the top of the dough and your rolling pin.
- Roll your dough by starting from the center and working outwards in all directions. Occasionally turn the cookie dough and while adding a bit of flour underneath so it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out your cookies with a gingerbread man cookie cutter. Remove any excess dough, and reuse them later! Flour a thin spatula, gently and carefully slide it under the cookies (if you floured your work surface well, you should have no problem with any sticking), and transfer it to the baking pan. Leaving about 1-inch in between each cookie.
- With a fork, lightly press it into the cookie to create Chewbacca’s fur.
- Optionally, if you’re adding Yoda, carefully wrap the almonds or pecans with Chewbacca’s arms and press firmly but not so firmly that the arms break. If you’re not adding Yoda, you can skip this step.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on the baking pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be soft right when you take them out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool.
Toppings:
- Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave on high in 20-second intervals, while stirring in between, and pour the chocolate into a piping bag.
- Cut a small hole at the end of the piping bag, and draw the base of Chewbacca’s bandolier. Repeat for the rest. Allow the dark chocolate to set before moving on to the next step. If you have room, you can place the cookies in the fridge to make the process go by quickly.
- When the dark chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and pour it into another piping bag. Cut a tiny hole, and carefully pipe Chewbacca’s ammunition on his bandolier. Allow the white chocolate to set.
- If you’re planning to make Yoda, you can start creating his head and ears while you wait for the chocolate to set with the green fondant. Firmly add Yoda’s head above Chewbacca’s arms, and with a toothpick, dip it in chocolate and add his eyes.
- Serve, and enjoy!
Notes
- Measure your flour properly. I always weigh my ingredients with a food scale because it is more accurate than cups. But here is a video for those who only have cups to measure, click here to watch.
- Why do you need to properly weigh flour? The risk is that you could be adding too much flour without knowing, and adding too much flour could make these cookies too dry. This is why I highly recommend using a food scale!
- Use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer. This cookie dough is quite thick, so to make things easier I highly suggest using a machine. You can use your hands, but it’ll take a bit of arm strength.
- Chill the cookie dough. The cookie dough will be too soft to roll out. Chilling the dough will help with rolling it and cutting it out.
- Yoda is optional. Creating the Yoda heads is a bit laborious, which is why I made it an option. Do whatever fits your time and schedule!
- Vegan white chocolate. I used the iChoc brand, however, I can’t seem the find it on Amazon anymore. You can try this one instead: https://amzn.to/3xJfcXf I’m just unsure of the taste and quality.
- Other options for decorating! If you don’t want to deal with melting chocolate, you can use more vegan-friendly fondant, royal icing, or buttercream frosting! Just add some black food coloring for the base of the bandolier.
- You can keep the cookie dough in the freezer for a couple of days!
Keywords: vegan, vegan baking, vegan cookies, vegan shortbread cookies, shortbread cookies, mocha shortbread cookies, wookie cookies, vegan wookie cookies, mocha cookies, star wars day, star wars recipe, chewbacca cookies
