STAR WARS: GALACTIC BAKING is the latest cookbook from Insight Editions, following last year’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Official Cookbook. With over 40 recipes, GALACTIC BAKING has something for any occasion, whether it be a healthy snack after Jedi training, a special cake for Life Day, or everything in between.
The book is categorized by the type of location each recipe is based on, with sections including Desert Worlds and Cities & Space Stations! Additionally, the cookbook highlights quick recipes (Lightspeed Recipe), healthier options (Light-Side Recipe), and those particularly sweet and rich treats (Dark-Side Recipes). Each recipe includes a final image, and those with more difficult or unique features also include “making of” photos to guide the baker!
Let me be clear: I am not the world’s greatest cook or baker. When Insight Editions kindly offered to send Friends of the Force a review copy of GALACTIC BAKING, I happily said yes but was also privately a little worried, because what if I couldn’t make any of the recipes? But that’s all part of the adventure, and I’m happy to report that there is really something in this cookbook for everyone.
For a baking cookbook, I honestly expected all the recipes to be sweet treats. However, GALACTIC BAKING surprised me with many breads, baked snacks, and several recipes that can be served as mini meals for the whole family. Since I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to baking, I did my best to stick to some of the simpler recipes.
The first recipe I made was the "Podrace Puffs." These one-bite pizza dough puffs struck me as a super easy treat to make for a birthday or dinner party where appetizers make the occasion even better! This was a great recipe to try first, especially since the dough was super easy to make. This recipe can also be customized with whatever pizza seasoning you fancy most. I went with classic italian herb, but I’m looking forward to trying this recipe again with other pizza spices like garlic & herb!
The next recipe I set out to make was a type of trail-mix snack named "Mos Eisley Cantina Munchies." This recipe included sriracha hot sauce, which I was a bit hesitant about, but knowing that it also included honey and soy sauce lowered my nerves a bit! The hardest part of this recipe was, without a doubt, getting all the snacks as ingredients. I substituted cheese balls for Cheeto puffs, which is essentially the same thing but in a different shape, and it came in a package with less product while costing less money.
For an item like that, I knew I wasn’t going to eat the plain cheese puffs, so this was a worthwhile substitution. The Cantina munchies turned out surprisingly well (my family agreed), but when I make this one again, I plan to use slightly less sriracha for my personal taste. Still, this was delicious!
Finally, I tried the "Festival of the Ancestors Cookies." These cookies feature a sugar cookie rim with a hard candy (Jolly Rancher) plain or marbled center! These didn’t look too difficult and sounded like they had a unique taste. Well, I gave this one a go and the dough totally flopped, but I chalked it up to a mistake in my ingredients — will I explain further? Nope. A few days later, I made attempt number two with much better success! The dough turned out to be up to snuff and they looked a little more like the photos. Next time, I'd make these cookies more of a one-bite size as opposed to a larger one, but there's no denying that they're beautiful (and super tasty!).
All in all, GALACTIC BAKING offers something for everyone. Whether you’re a baking Padawan or a baking Master, there will be a recipe that you not only love but is also applicable to your skill level. I’d recommend this book for anyone who loves to creatively implement Star Wars into their day-to-day lives. The recipes were easy to follow and the adherence to the Star Wars theme was creative and faithful to the franchise. As for me, there’s so many more recipes I can’t wait to make because, as Yoda says, “Do or do not, there is no try”!
Looking to get Star Wars: Galactic Baking? Check it out on Bookshop or get it from your local indie bookstore! Friends of the Force recommends Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor Michigan. These are not affiliate links or sponsored in any way, we here at Friends of the Force just love independent bookstores!
Sarah Hass is a co-host on the Friends of the Force main show and Resistance series Bibo's Book Report. She is also a co-creator of #RememberingResistance Day. When she's not annoying Brad by keeping him on the Zoom meeting longer than either of them intended, you can find her nonsensical ramblings on her twitter @seh221 and her book musings on Instagram at @sarahspuzzledpages.
Comments