Chocolate Han Solo in Carbonite Cookies

This instructable will show you how to make Chocolate Han Solo in Carbonite Cookies. I found out how to make these at discovery.com and had to share this with the Instructable community.

Han Solo in Carbonite ice cube tray or the carbon-freezing chamber located on Cloud City

    2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

    1 cup sugar

    1 egg

    1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    Army of wookees so no one takes your cookies

Over a small bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, slowly add the sugar and a few drops of food coloring gel and beat for 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, stopping the mixer once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Stop the mixer and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been absorbed. Add the remaining flour and continue beating until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 2 equal balls. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 3/16 to 1/4 inch.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using cookie cutters. Dip the cutters into flour just before using and cut out the shapes. Repeat with the remaining dough. Gather up the scraps, reroll them and cut out additional cookies. Refrigerate the cookies until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake the cookies until golden brown around the edges, 12 to 15 minutes. If baking more than one sheet at a time, switch the sheets between the racks and rotate them 180 degrees halfway through baking.

Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies directly onto the racks and let cool completely. Decorate as desired. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 12 to 15 cookies.

And if you want to get really creative, get some silver frosting or cake dye to the cookies so they look like Carbonite instead of chocolate.