If you have a galaxy-sized appetite for a Star Wars Bantha Cookie, we have the recipe for you! Found at Disneyland and Disney World’s Oga’s Cantina in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, there's a lot to love about this cookie.
Bantha Cookies look and taste like fancier, larger, Girl Scout Samoas or Caramel deLites. The bottom is a thick, vanilla and butter sugar cookie. Next, is a layer of caramel and coconut secured to the cookie with chocolate drizzle. Adorning the top of the cookie is a crispy swirl of meringue that resembles the horn of a bantha. It's adorable!
At Oga's Cantina, the Bantha Cookie is served atop the Blue Bantha drink. We assume that the draw of the Blue Bantha drink was meant to be its iconic blue milk, sipped through a straw in the center of the cookie. But, instead, adults and kids alike are ordering Blue Banthas just to get their hands on the glorious cookie. In fact, the Bantha Cookie has such a following that Oga now sells the cookies à la carte, albeit for quite the bounty.
Still, we think this cookie is worth every penny. There's something magical that happens when all these components come together. So many textures hit every craving, from crispy to chewy to soft. Likewise, the flavors satisfy on multiple levels: butter, vanilla, caramel, chocolate, and meringue. Plus, it's rare we encounter a treat whose taste is matched by its impressive presentation, but the Bantha cookie does it.
Recipe Notes
Cookie Size
This recipe makes four, 2.75” diameter cookies. If you plan to set your cookie on top of a glass (like Oga does), measure the diameter of the glass before beginning. Use a cookie cutter that is at least, if not a a bit bigger, than the rim of the glass. The recipe can be adapted for larger cookies by either making fewer cookies than this recipe calls for or by making more dough to accommodate for larger sized cookies. Keep in mind that the vanilla butter cookie dough is rolled out thick before baking (approximately 1/3 inch). We've tried to craft our vanilla butter cookie recipe to minimize spread in the oven, but no worries if they do.
Coconut
Do you know how many different kinds of coconut pieces are on the market? There is shredded, finely shredded, flaked, chips, dessicated, sweetened, unsweetened, toasted and not toasted. The list goes on and on. Bottom line for this recipe: Factory-toasted coconut (bought already toasted) works best. We tried many types and like this coconut the best (paid link).
Alternatively, if you choose to toast the coconut on your own, use unsweetened coconut. Unsweetened coconut has less moisture than sweetened so it retains its shape better. Conversely, sweetened coconut that's toasted at home will bend and ball into a soft mess.
So what kind of unsweetened coconut should you use, should you choose to toast your own coconut? There’s so much variation in shredded and flaked coconut, we’re convinced that the people making it don’t even know what kind it is. So, use your eye. If the unsweetened coconut looks more like little sticks than freshly fallen snow or the bottom of a chip bag, it will likely work for this recipe. We were unsuccessful in finding the almost chow-mein-noodle-like coconut found in some Bantha Cookies from Oga's. For now, what Oga's Cantina uses remains a mystery, and that's okay with us.
Caramel
Because Werther’s is totally Disney to us thanks to Karamell-Küche in Epcot's Germany pavilion, we made our Bantha Cookie copycat recipe using their soft caramels. We are wow'ed with Werther's caramels' flavor (sorry, Kraft, we still love your macaroni and cheese). Side note: We also tried using homemade caramel, but the cookie ended up tasting like a caramel roll.
Meringue
If meringue isn’t your cup of tea or is too much of a bother to make, it's easy to substitute melted white chocolate (wait for the chocolate to cool enough to pipe) or use a thick, white frosting. Some meringue recipes are time consuming (need hours in the oven) and fussy (get too brown or styrofoam-like). Our meringue recipe starts on the stovetop, where the meringue is brought to a safe temperature to minimize the risk of undercooked egg. Then it's finished in the oven in just minutes, to the perfect texture.
Special Supplies Needed
- 2.5 inch diameter, round cookie or biscuit cutter
- Parchment paper
- Plastic straws
- Candy thermometer
- Piping bag or thick, food-safe plastic storage bag
- Small, round piping tip. We used an Ateco 800 tip.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 8 Werther’s brand soft caramels
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, separated. You'll use about 2 tablespoons for the caramel coconut cookie. Then, later, you'll use another 2 tablespoons to adhere the caramel cookie to the butter cookie.
- 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut, toasted. (Read the note above for advice on choosing coconut!)
- 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 small pinch of salt
- 1 small pinch of cream of tartar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farenheit.
- Start by making the vanilla butter cookies. In a medium sized bowl, add the softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Blend with an electric mixer for 1 minute until creamy.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour and cornstarch. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the remaining flour mixture and blend just until a dough comes together.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough just big enough to cut out 4 cookies. Use a 2.5” diameter biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
- Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving at least 1 inch between each cookie.
- Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet and allow them to sit for 10 minutes before moving onto the next step.
- Using a plastic straw, punch out a hole in the center of each cookie. You have your vanilla butter cookies!
- Next, make the chocolate coconut caramel layer. In a small saucepan, add the caramel, a little less than 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips (this is about 35, standard-sized chocolate chips) and sweetened condensed milk.
- Cook over medium-low heat until melted.
- Add the toasted coconut to the melted chocolate mixture and use a spatula to mix until the toasted coconut is well incorporated.
- Use the spatula to divide the mixture into 4, equally-sized pieces.
- Transfer the 4 pieces to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a spoon, lightly press the top of each ball into a 2.5” round cookie. Do NOT press too hard or overwork the caramel layer. You want this layer to resemble puffy bantha hair!
- Using a plastic straw, punch out a hole in the center of each cookie. You have your chocolate coconut caramel layer!
- It’s time to make Swiss meringue for the Bantha shaped horns. Start by fitting a piping bag or thick plastic storage bag with a small, round piping tip.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Next, in a heat-safe bowl over a double boiler, add the egg white, granulated sugar, cream of tartar and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Whisking frequently, cook the egg mixture over high heat in the double boiler until the internal temperature of the egg mixture reaches at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Do NOT skip this step. The temperature must reach 160 degrees for the meringue to be safe to eat.
- Immediately remove the egg mixture from the heat and blend with an electric mixer, on medium-low, until slightly thickened. You should be able to pull up the mixer and see a thicken ribbon of meringue fall. Do NOT whip the meringue to soft peaks or it will be too thick.
- Working quickly, transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a small piping tip.
- On top of each chocolate coconut caramel layer, use the Swiss meringue to pipe a bantha-shaped horn. (Pipe a swirl first, then immediately pipe stripes on top of the swirl.) Note: You will have leftover meringue.
- Transfer the meringue-topped coconut caramel layer to the oven and bake for 10 minutes to slightly dry out the meringue. Remove from the oven and let them sit on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before moving onto the next step.
- It’s time to assemble the cookies! Begin my melting 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips. We melted ours on 50% power in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until just melted.
- Using a spoon or piping bag, add a circle of melted chocolate to the top of each vanilla butter cookie. See photo below. Note: You will have leftover chocolate.
- Place a meringue-topped coconut caramel layer on top of each vanilla butter cookie, lining up the center holes of the cookies. Insert a straw into the center of each cookie to make sure the holes of the cookies are aligned, then transfer to the refrigerator for 10 minutes to set the chocolate.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This copycat recipe for the Bantha Cookie is fairly simple to make, even though it is multi-step process! If this recipe is a bit too much, we have a solution for you: Start with a Walkers brand shortbread round. Then, use melted chocolate to adhere a Girl Scout Samoa or Caramel deLites cookie to the top. (If Girl Scout cookies aren't in season, opt for a Keebler brand Coconut Dreams cookie.) Finally, use a piping bag filled with vanilla frosting to decorate the top with a bantha-shaped horn.
If you love this Oga's Cantina inspired Bantha Cookie recipe, check out our other Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge recipes.
Janin
Hi!!! Thank you for all these recipes! I’m searching for the actual recipe for the blue drink. I only see the cookie recipe. Am I overlooking it??
Diznify
Hi Janin! You didn't miss anything! This is for the cookies only. I'd search "galaxy's edge blue milk recipe" to track one down. Enjoy!
Olivia
Great and accurate bantha cookie! So delicious and looked the part too! A really easy recipe to follow. I toasted the coconut myself and they turned out excellent!
Diznify
That makes us so happy to hear! Thank you for sharing your success and I hope it made you feel a little like you were at Oga’s Cantina again!
Julie
I have one problem with this recipe. It actually tastes better than the one at Oga’s. After making this recipe, we all found Oga’s cookie lacking.
Can hardly wait to make it again!
Diznify
Thank you, Julie! That makes us so happy!