A little look back at August..
Before we know it, August has arrived, and with it another month of finding new ways with Panda. This month has been a lovely mixture of revisiting recipes, developing a few new ideas and, as always, wondering “what if?” and seeing where it takes us. One of my favourite discoveries this month has to be the Blueberry, Lemon & Vanilla Baked Cheesecake. There may have been a little IKEA nostalgia involved here...
A creamy baked vanilla cheesecake layer, lemon-infused blueberries and a crunchy sweet crumble topping, all sitting on a firm Panda Porridge Mix base. Both the base and crumble use the Porridge Mix, which made this one particularly satisfying to put together.
And Mr Panda's verdict? “Closest I've had to the IKEA cheesecake with berries.” They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, in this instance, perhaps cheesecake is the express route?.
The Garden loaf for all seasons
Our Seeded Garden Loaf is another recipe that I can already see growing with us through the seasons.
There's something I particularly enjoy about recipes like this — ones that have a lovely foundation but leave plenty of room for changing things around. Different seeds, different toppings, different occasions...this is one we'll be returning to again and again.
A recipe finally making its way into the library
Our Cherry & Almond Cookies aren't actually new to the Panda kitchen. These were tested some time ago, and we've had quite a few requests for the recipe since. After a few little tweaks, they've now made their way into the Panda Pantry recipe library. More often than not a recipe needs a little time before it's ready to leave the kitchen and be shared and enjoyed by all our lovely Panda Pioneers.
From Jam Drops to Cheddar Drops
Following on from our Panda Jam Drops, I couldn't help wondering...Cheese? What if we took the same idea, applied the same tasty logic and simply gave it a savoury little twist? Enter, Cheddar Drops. And thankfully, it worked! Add a little homemade chutney or conserve of your choice and you've suddenly got some lovely little table sharers. With a few more small tweaks, I can already see these becoming something of a seasonal staple for us.
A little taste of late summer
I also found myself making something a little more rustic this month: Damson & Dark Chocolate Galette. The damsons were a gift from my parents, so I wanted to make good use of them while they were here. An all-butter golden Panda Shortcrust Pastry, lightly sweetened, wrapped around a rich chocolate frangipane centre and those beautiful little damsons. There is something rather lovely about taking ingredients that have been given to you and turning them into something to share around the family table. Better still, just taking a look in the fridge and contemplating.. what can I make today with what I can see in front of me!
And then there's pasta…
Not only appearing at the PPHQ as I've also been having rather a lot of fun playing with fresh pasta dough in the Panda Family Kitchen. Following on from Mr Panda's recent fresh egg pasta creation, I've been experimenting with different hand-shaped pasta — including rotini (clumsily) made with chopsticks and farfalle which we absolutely need to revisit with Mark's Pasta breakthrough.
I've already been asked whether I enjoy playing with the pasta dough..the answer is always going to be yes, I mean... it may as well be the adult equivalent of Play-Doh, really.
And that's probably where I'll leave August. There are still plenty of ideas rattling around in my head (and a few too many notebooks), and I'm beginning to realise that some of my favourite Panda creations come from not having a finished recipe in mind at all. Just a bit of dough or an ingredient sitting in the cupboard which has finally found its purpose for Panda and that little voice asking...“I wonder what would happen if...?”. Hold that thought.
See you in September,
Emma 🐼
