The legend of the Teddy Bear Cookie
Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a magically
delicious, beautifully decorated Christmas cookie that was a sight
to behold. The cute, bear-shaped cookie stood out on every holiday
plate honored enough to hold it; its buttery, slightly almond taste
practically melted in your mouth.
OK, I’m exaggerating. But to hear my sister, Ann-Marie, tell it,
the Teddy Bear Cookie is the best Christmas cookie in the world.
Ever.
The legend of the Teddy Bear Cookie
Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a magically delicious, beautifully decorated Christmas cookie that was a sight to behold. The cute, bear-shaped cookie stood out on every holiday plate honored enough to hold it; its buttery, slightly almond taste practically melted in your mouth.
OK, I’m exaggerating. But to hear my sister, Ann-Marie, tell it, the Teddy Bear Cookie is the best Christmas cookie in the world. Ever.
The legend of the Teddy Bear Cookie begins 18 years ago. I was a young mom with a toddler and a newborn son, a part-time job and the odd notion that the best Christmas gifts I could give family and friends were cookies. And not just any cookies. I wanted the most excellent-tasting, prettiest Christmas cookies I could find.
After baking dozens of chocolate mint snowdrops, sugar cookie cut-outs and the little buttery ones made with a cookie press (not to mention chocolate chip, snickerdoodles and oatmeal scotchies), I came across a recipe for Almond Cookie Mice in Woman’s Day magazine.
It was a simple recipe, using basically butter and brown sugar. After chilling the dough, you were supposed to shape a ball into a slight oval shape resembling a mouse, bake it and then attach a licorice tail and tiny gum drop eyes. At the bottom of the recipe, there were alternate directions for shaping them as teddy bears.
I got Annie to help me, and a few short hours later, about 25 teddy bear cookies were sitting on my counter. They were blind – the recipe said to use raisins for the eyes, and most of my family hates raisins. I hadn’t thought about another way to create eyes for my cookies ahead of time. We ended up using cinnamon red hots, which gave them a slightly sinister appearance. And they didn’t have the exact bow ties the recipe called for, because I had discovered that my cooking talents did not extend to tying licorice into the shape of a bow tie. I let Annie handle that part.
Thus the legend of the Teddy Bear Cookie was born.
I don’t remember much about how these cookies tasted, but for some reason known only to her, they became my sister’s favorite. And since we have a tradition in my family that each person gets to request one cookie to be baked for Christmas, Annie asks for teddy bear cookies every year.
Unfortunately, I lost the recipe. I can visualize the red and white pull-out sheet it was on, but God only knows what I did with it. Annie says I lost it on purpose so I didn’t have to make them for her anymore. There may be some truth to that – shaping cookie dough into a whole lot of little bear balls is not necessarily what comes to my mind when thinking of fun things to do.
Yet every year, Annie asks for them. I shake my head; I tell her I don’t have the recipe. I even try to use the full-time-working-single-mother-of-four martyr routine, but she hasn’t stopped asking. I admire her resiliency, her steadfast refusal to give up hope. Mostly, her yearly requests make me feel guilty.
So this year I did a Web search. It took 20 minutes, but I found it. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t on the Woman’s Day Web site – apparently they don’t archive 18-year-old recipes. A woman named Kathy who runs a healthy recipe site had it in her cookie archive. (I’m not sure what is healthy about butter and brown sugar. I’d ask Kathy, but I wasn’t able to send an e-mail to the address listed on the site.)
I made the cookies this weekend, enlisting the help of my daughters. We laughed and made jokes as we turned balls of dough into teddy bears. We changed the red hots to mini chocolate chips and used cake decorating gel instead of licorice for the bow ties. My sister waited with anticipation for the first batch to be done.
But as often happens in life, her first bite of her “favorite” cookie did not quite live up to her expectations. “It’s not as almond-y as I remember,” she said.
Generally, the cookie itself won decent reviews from most of the family. My youngest daughter hates shortbread cookies, so she wasn’t overly thrilled, and my other sister took one bite then asked if anyone wanted it. It’s not a sweet cookie by any means, but it’s a great cookie for dunking in hot cocoa or a flavored coffee, and it is a very cute addition to a tray of holiday cookies.
Besides, there was really only one person’s opinion about the legendary Teddy Bear Cookies that mattered. As we finished taking pictures with the cookies, Annie walked away with the plate asking “Are these fair game now?”
Teddy Bear Cookies
(Original recipe published by Woman’s Day magazine as Almond Cookie Mice)
1 c. butter, softened – not melted
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
3-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
½ c. mini chocolate chips
1 tube cake decorating gel, red or green
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Gradually beat in flour until blended. Dough will be stiff. Cover and refrigerate one hour or until well chilled.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape rounded tablespoonful of dough into a 1-1/2 inch ball. Press one side flat on ungreased cookie sheet. Shape rounded tablespoon of dough into 1-inch ball. Attach onto top of first ball as bear’s head; press flat. Shape five small spoons of dough as nose and paws; attach one on the top circle and other four at sides and bottom to make a bear shape. Bake 9-12 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to rack. Press two mini chocolate chips onto face as eyes.
After cookies have cooled, used decorating gel to draw a festive bow at each bear’s neck. Makes approximately 25 cookies, depending on size.
