For my sister’s baby shower, we gave out these adorable teddy bear cookies as favors. It is time intensive process but certainly worth the effort. Here is a recipe for the cookies and the icing.

Almond Sugar Cookies

• 1 Cup butter
• 1 Cup powdered sugar
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 1 ½ Teaspoon almond extract
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 2 ½ Cups flour

Method:

1. Cream butter.
2. Add powdered sugar.
3. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt, and flour.
4. Chill dough until firm.
5. Roll to ¼ inch thickness on parchment paper.
6. Cut cookies with cutter and remove dough around the cookie. This ensures that your cookie stays in the right shape.
7. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown.
8. Frost and decorate when cool.

Note: I always use parchment paper.

Icing Recipe

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon milk
• Food coloring (optional)

Method:

1. In a rather large bowl, whisk sugar, syrup, and a bit of milk.
2. Slowly add more milk to your icing. Be careful not to add too much at a time.
3. Add a two drops of food coloring, if desired.
4. Whisk your icing until it evenly flows from the whisk, slowly adding milk. You are looking for the consistency of honey.
5. Icing the cookies with a butter knife. I’ve found that this is the easiest way of evenly icing the cookie.
6. Allow icing to harden before packaging.

For the baby shower favors we wrapped a large teddy bear cookie and a small teddy bear cookie in a clear bag (from Michaels) with a pretty blue bow.

I will admit this was a process, but it was worth it. Not only are they cute they are also delish!