Love-Hate Stained Glass Hearts #FoodNFlix #StarWarsFood

Today's cookies are part of my offerings for August's Food'N'Flix event. Kelley of Simply Inspired Meals is hosting a month-long round-up of Star Wars recipes for Food'N'Flix. You can read her invitation here. I was inspired to make a cookie in honor of my favorite scoundrel and his princess!

Love-Hate

from disney.fandom.com

Han Solo and Leia Organa's is a classic love story, and one of my favorite patterns. I've always had a soft spot for enemies that eventually set aside their differences and fall madly in love with each other. Love-hate relationships are much more interesting - at least in books and movies! My favorite thing about love-hate relationships: the complexity of the characters. They’re usually hilariously flawed, highly relatable, and - most importantly - they illustrate that the road to true love can be bumpy. 

Han and Leia have that perfect blend of passion and hatred that I look for in my fictional couples. One of my favorite quotes is when Leia lashes out at Han: “Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!” Then, of course, they fall for each other through the course of a couple of movies and you learn that they even have a child together. Hope that wasn't a spoiler for anyone!

In any case, there's a beloved-by-fans exchange when Han and Leia say goodbye in The Empire Strikes Back*. Han is about to be frozen in carbonite. Not knowing if he’ll survive, he kisses Leia, only to be ripped away from her by the stormtroopers.

She gushes, “I love you!”

And as he descends into carbonite chamber, Han replies, “I know.”

Okay, it might not be the most romantic response in the world when someone, for the first time, declares their love for you. How about 'I love you, too'?!?! But it felt real and true-to-character. And it's become an iconic exchange. I mean, search 'I love you', 'I know' on Etsy or Pinterest and you'll see what I mean.

Stained Glass Hearts

So, in honor of that exchange and Han and Leia's love-hate relationship, I decided to make a riff of my Jammie Dodgers with some blood red strawberry jam.

Ingredients

• 3/4 C butter (1-1/2 sticks), slightly softened
• 1/4 C organic granulated sugar
• 1/4 C organic powdered sugar +  more for finishing
• 1 egg
• 2 C flour
• 1/2 t ground cardamom
• jam for filling (I used strawberry)
• Also needed: cookie cutters in two different sizes to make the base and the window

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an hand mixer until lightened and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then fold in the flour and cardamom until it comes together as a ball. Some recipes said to chill the dough, mine was plenty stiff, so I just rolled them out.

Roll the dough out (I did mine in two batches) on a lightly floured surface. You want to try for between 1/4" and 1/2" thick.

Use a large heart shape to cut the dough. Re-roll the extras until you are out of dough. For half of the rounds, cut another, smaller heart in the middle to form a window. You'll want to have even numbers of tops to bottoms. Place the cookies on a parchment paper or silicone mat-lined baking sheet.

Place the cookies in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. You want the cookies firm, but not too browned.

Allow the biscuits to cool on the tray for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

To assemble, dust the cookies with the cutouts with powdered sugar. Add a dollop of jam to the full rounds and sandwich the cookies together.

*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.