The dogs’ dad’s mom recently had a birthday.   Tomorrow we are meeting up with her to have tea at Lady Camellia’s.   As part of her birthday gift, made chocolate almond coffee pandas.

The chocolate cookie dough is this recipe:  http://www.lilaloa.com/2011/03/end-all-for-chocolate-cookies-recipe.html

The almond coffee dough was made with:

• 1 stick browned butter
• 1 to 2 tablespoons freeze dried coffee
• 1 tablespoon boiling water to dissolve the coffee
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Found 2 tablespoons of coffee a bit too strong.  Would make panda cookies with vanilla instead of chocolate if using that much coffee.

The cookie cutters are from amazon.

Cut out  the chocolate base.

Cut out the faces and tummies.

The coffee dough was a bit too crumbly.   The faces did not cut out as cleanly as they should.    Next time, add an extra tablespoon of water when dissolving the coffee.

24 fit on this cookie sheet.

Baked at 350 for 8 minutes.

They were not as cute as I would have preferred    The coffee dough did not cut as smoothly as the chocolate.

Panda Zo approved.

Put them in a panda bag.

Coco likes these bags.