Panda Slice and Bake Cookies

I doubt this is news elsewhere in the country, but here in DC our local newscasters went crazy when the National Zoo announced the birth of a new Giant Panda on September 16. I'm not kidding - they were reporting live from the scene. This is hilarious because the Giant Panda enclosure was closed and no one had actually seen a picture of the cub yet, so all the newscasters could say was to go to the webcast on the Smithsonian's website and that they knew absolutely no details about the cub.

[Unfortunately the cub died a week after its birth. I was bummed. So I ate the remainder of these cookies and felt a bit better.]

But clearly the time called for cookies.

Did anyone else make beads when they were younger? These cookies rely on the same technique, namely rolling out logs of dough and squishing them back together to form a pattern - in this case a panda. My panda isn't the pretties panda you'll ever see, but it is pretty darn tasty!

Of course, now I'm wondering how many other animals I can make with the same technique. If anyone experiments, let me know!

Panda Slice and Bake Cookies

Seriously adapted from Hungry at Midnight, Cookpad

These will keep in the freezer for a couple months so long as the log is tightly bound in saran wrap. Feel free to take out, slice a few cookies, and enjoy one or two pandas at a time! If you want to double the recipe, feel free, but you should probably make 2 logs instead of one very long one because the dough tends to start breaking as you roll it out.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Dry Mixture 1:
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 baking powder
• Pinch salt
• Dry Mixture 2:
• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/8 baking powder
• Pinch salt
• Plenty of flour for rolling out the dough

 Equipment

Mixing bowls, hand mixer, saran wrap

Instructions

Make the dough: Beat the butter and sugar with electric mixer until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Divide mixture in two and place in separate bowls (I had about 1 cup total of butter, egg, and vanilla – so 1/2 cup wet in each bowl). Add Dry Mixture 1 to one bowl and Dry Mixture 2 to the other bowl. Mix well. Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes before assembling the panda (longer is fine!).

Assemble the panda: You are going to be rolling out the dough into many logs, so flour your hands and find a clean cooking surface. If you think the dough is getting too soft, put the logs in the fridge after you roll them out. Consistency is key here – make sure all the logs are as close to the same length as possible. This will make slicing the pandas much easier in the future.

Feel free to refer to the pictures above. I tried to make it clear why you are making so many logs just to roll them all back together. As you can see from my panda cookie picture, things will expand while baking and you may end up with something that isn't absolutely beautiful, but still resembles a panda.

Roll Dry Mixture 1 (aka the white dough) into 8 logs:

·      Two will be very thin – these will be the eyes.

·      One will be very thick – this will be the body

·      Four will be mid-sized – these will be the face

·      One will be slightly smaller than the four mid-sized – this will also be the face

Roll Dry Mixture 2 (aka the brown dough) into 7 logs and 3 flat pieces:

·      Two will be thin flat pieces – these will be the brown spots around the eyes

·      One will be a wide flat piece – this will be the piece that separates the head from the body

·      One will be very thin – this will be the nose

·      Four will mid-sized – these will be the arms and legs

·      Two will be slightly smaller than the four mid-sized – these will be the ears

You’re going to make the panda log in two parts – the head and the body. We’ll stick the head on the body at the end.

Place the thinnest white logs onto the two thin flat brown pieces. Roll the brown flat pieces around the white log to make the eyes. Place one white slightly smaller than mid-sized log in between the two eyes and press towards the center. Place the thin brown log underneath the eyes centered under the white tube. Surround the eyes and nose with the four mid-sized white tubes.

You’ve made the head!

Take the thick white tube and place the wide brown flat piece directly on top – this is the body.

Put the head on top of the body and squeeze together. Add the arms, legs, and ears. It’s likely not going to look pretty at this point, but don’t worry – once you start cutting the log, the cookies will start to resemble a panda more. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in freezer for an hour.

Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take your log out of the freezer and using a very sharp knife or pastry cutter, cut the cookies in thin slices (about 1/4 inch). Place on baking tray and bake for 8-12 minutes. Cool on tray for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Makes about 2 dozen panda cookies.