The CUTEST Teddy Bear Cookies

I think I’m in love with these teddy bear cookies! Seriously. Aren’t they the most adorable cookies ever?! I know, I know, I might have a soft spot in my heart for teddy bears. Or maybe all of us who grew up in the 1980’s or earlier have a soft spot for teddy bears? You know, back in the day when you had maybe 5 or 6 teddy bears if you were lucky. Not 5 garbage bags full of them like my three kids have somehow managed to accumulate. Don’t get me started on the number of Beanie Boos we have in this house.

Anyway, do you remember in school, we had to write speeches about something, and recite the speech in front of the class? I remember when I was in the 5th Grade, I wrote my speech ALL about my teddy bears. lol Which looking back, I must have looked like the biggest dork in the whole world. It seems a little mortifying that I proclaimed my love for stuffed animals in front of a class full of 10 year olds.

But I’d be lying if I tried to convince you that I was anything other than a certified dork when I was younger. I even learned how to sew my own stuffed animals when I was a kid. If you want to see a blast from my blogging past, you can take a look at this (horrible) post showing a couple pictures of the stuffed animals I sewed when I was younger. I think that was the second post I EVER published on this blog of mine almost 4 years ago. Whew! I’ve definitely come a long way since 2012! (Eek! It’s a bit embarrassing…)

The idea for these teddy bear cookies comes from a YouTube video of all places. But aren’t they adorable!? My kids LOVED them. I had them sitting on the kitchen counter when they came home from school and daycare and my almost-2-year-old kept reaching his arms above his head to steal them from the counter. He was sick with a terrible cold all last week, and this was the first thing he was actually willing to eat.

My kids tend to be picky, so when I manage to bake something that all three of them love, I swear my heart starts to glow. Or my eyes start to glow. Or maybe my heart starts to grow? Geez Louise, what on earth is the saying I’m looking for to express my love here?? I’m just going to assume you know what I’m getting at. 🙂

The CUTEST Teddy Bear Cookies

The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:

• Sugar Cookies (recipe below)


• Almonds


• Mini Teddy Bear Cookie Cutter

I had to pull out my rolling pin for the occasion. You know I’m not the most established baker, so it’s always a challenge for me. As I was rolling out the dough I was laughing at how my husband (of all people…) had to teach me how to use the rolling pin last year when I made Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies. I think I did a reasonable job though?

The teddy bear cookie cutter is small – only about 1.5 inches at the longest part. So you can get about a bazillion cookies from this recipe. (Yup. A bazillion.)

I used a flat metal spatula to lift them off the counter and onto the parchment paper.

Here’s my dorkiness coming out again. I was nervous about the bear faces and how the arms would bend over the almond, so I tested the cookie cutter and faces a couple of times with play-doh. Which might seem slightly ridiculous if you’re an established baker, but I found it really helpful to be able to test it out!

Since I don’t have any fancy decorating tools, I just used a toothpick to poke out the teddy bear’s eyes and nose. For the eyes, I used the back flat part of the toothpick and for the nose I used the sharp pointy end of the toothpick.

Gently press an almond into each of the bears at a slight angle. Make sure the almonds are slightly indented into the dough or they might fall out after they bake.

This part was a little time consuming, but not difficult by any means. Use a toothpick to lift up the teddy bear’s arms, and gently bend them upwards and press them onto the almond to make it look like the teddy bear is hugging the almond. Use your fingers to reshape the dough if you need to.

Be careful not to do too many bears at once or the dough might dry out. If it does dry out, just dip your finger in a small bowl of water and spread a tiny amount of water on top of the shape before you lift the arms up and over the almond.

Then bake the teddy bears until they’re ever so slightly golden brown around the edges.

Some of the arms lifted off of the almonds a little bit. You can see it in bears in the top and middle rows on the right side in the photo below. I was able to bend some of the arms back into shape when they were hot out of the oven, but there were definitely a few that un-hugged the almond. But I was okay with that.

You can see just how small and cute these little guys are in the photo below. And did I mention that they taste AMAZING!?

Print Recipe

The CUTEST Teddy Bear Cookies

These teddy bear cookies are SO CUTE and they taste amazing!!

Prep Time40 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time50 mins

Servings: 36

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 36 almonds

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer until smooth.
• Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
• In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, beating together.
• When it's all mixed in, wet your hands and knead it by hand until it has a good dough consistency.
• Immediately roll small batches out onto a floured surface to about ¼ inch thick, then cut out the teddy bear shapes with a cookie cutter. (Don't chill the dough)
• Set the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet.
• Use a toothpick to make the teddy bear face. Then add an almond diagonally to each shape and press it down slightly into the dough. Use a toothpick to lift up each arm and press it around the almond to look like the teddy bear is hugging the almond.
• Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, or until edges are very slightly golden.

Notes

You'll really only need half of the dough in this recipe. You can use the other half of the dough to make sugar cookies in other shapes (I'd recommend larger cookie cutters after making a bazillion bears...), or you can freeze the rest of the dough for another time. Just let the frozen dough defrost for several hours before you plan to roll it out.

These teddy bear cookies are SO CUTE and they taste amazing!! It looks like they are hugging the almond! They’re simple to make and completely adorable!

If you’re looking for more delicious nut recipes, check out our recipe for the easiest candied pecans. Melt and mix everything together in a single pan. So easy!

Source : onelittleproject.com
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