Whenever I make panda-themed anything, I always think about one of my friends from high school, Karen. Fun fact, I had two friends from high school named Karen, who weirdly enough, I still keep in touch with, but also, they have never met each other before. That Karen-themed tidbit about myself aside, the panda-loving Karen and I would often bake panda-themed desserts together! Panda-loving Karen also owns a cute Pomeranian named Mochi, who I occasionally dog sit for. Last Karen tidbit, I swear. But one of the panda-themed desserts we made, about a decade ago actually, were panda shortbreads. The version I made back then had the panda design fully made out of the cookie. But then I thought, why not just do like a thumbprint shortbread-sandwich situation, and then just pipe the panda into the cookie that way? And that was how the idea to make these panda shortbreads came about! I found that piping the filling in, and dying it with cocoa powder resulted in fairly easy to make panda cookies that were as fun to assemble as they were to eat!

For the flavor of the cookies, I went with a swirled black sesame and vanilla shortbread, and the filling was a mixture of white and dark chocolate ganaches, finished with an edible paint made from cocoa powder and clear alcohol. The cookie was swirled with black sesame instead of being outright flavored with it, because I wanted a pleasant gradient between the doughs. I went with chocolate for the fillings simply because I had some leftover ganache from when I made the choco-bear sandwich cookies, and rather than making a sesame and normal white chocolate ganache, I figured I would use what I had on hand instead. The filling is really light and silky, and because dark chocolate is being used sparingly in this recipe, it will not overpower the more subtle sesame flavor in the cookie either, which is a major plus. All in all, these pandas were a fun improvement on those panda shortbreads I made with Karen literally a decade ago!

Makes 18 shortbread sandwiches:
For the shortbread dough:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp black sesame powder

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until they reach a silky consistency. Then add to that the egg yolk and vanilla, and stir until those are incorporated as well. Then fold the flour and cornstarch into the butter to form your dough. Split the dough in half, and mix the sesame powder into half of it. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Then on a floured surface, roll out the doughs to about 1/8-inch thickness. Layer them on top of one another, and then roll out again to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 1 1/2-inch rounds of the dough, and then with half of the rounds, cut out bear shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Freeze the dough for at least 1 hour before baking at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes.

For the white chocolate ganache filling:
1.5oz white chocolate chips
.5oz heavy cream
.5oz unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cooking sake

Over a double boiler, melt everything down. Allow the mixture to cool down before transferring to a piping bag for assembly.

For the dark chocolate ganache filling:
.5oz dark chocolate chips
1 tsp heavy cream
2g unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cooking sake

Over a double boiler, melt everything down. Allow the mixture to cool down before transferring to a piping bag for assembly.

For garnish:
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
1g clear alcohol

Mix together the form your edible paint.

To assemble:
Pipe the white chocolate onto a normal round. Then press onto it a round that has the bear shape cut out of it. Pipe the dark chocolate ganache into the areas where the ears would be for the panda. Then using a chopstick, draw on the panda’s features(eyes and nose) with the edible paint to finish.