Bear Paws – Medvědí tlapky

Bear paws are traditional Czech Christmas cookies known for their deep cinnamon-and-clove flavor and beautifully intricate shapes. Bear paws are pressed into carved molds that give them their distinctive patterns. After baking, they’re typically dusted with powdered sugar and left to soften over several days, developing a rich, festive aroma.

Kitchen essentials:

Holiday Shapes Non-Stick Cookie Pan, 12-Cavity https://amzn.to/48rh4at
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Tips:

• American powdered sugar has lots of cornstarch which can make cookies too
  sticky. I recommend making your own powdered sugar using 1 cup granulated
  white sugar and grind it in a coffee grinder. (I have two coffee grinders, one
  for coffee only and one for spices or for homemade powdered sugar.)
• Instead of using traditional single cookie molds, you can use a Christmas
  cookie shapes pan or Christmas cookie mold pan, which works well for me.
• I personally use a non-convection oven, so I position the baking rack as high
  as possible since the heat source in my oven is on the bottom. If you have
  the heat source in your oven on the top, position the baking rack as low as
  possible. This avoids getting the cookies prematurely burned. If you have a
  convection oven, you will have more freedom in rack placement depending
  on baking program you will use.
• When Bear Paws are baked they are sometimes on the crunchy side,
  depending on the type of mold you use. They should soften up over time.
  It is better to bake them a few or more weeks ahead of time to give them
  a chance to soften up.

Makes: About 10 dozen small cookies
Prep: 30 minutes
Hands On & Bake: 1 hour 20 minutes
Bake: 350 °F (180 °C) 9 minutes on top rack
Coat with Sugar: 10 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

Dough
2 cups (280 g) all purpose flour
1 1⁄4 cups (150 g) powdered sugar
1 cup (100 g) walnuts
1⁄2 cup (35 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
10 whole cloves or 1⁄4 tsp ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick or 1 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 lemon for zest
2 sticks (1 cup / 230 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Unsalted butter for coating the forms, at room temperature

Topping
1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar or 1 cup (200 g) granulated white sugar (to make your own powdered sugar)
1 vanilla bean

Directions:

• Preparing the coating for bear paws: Into a medium sized bowl add 1 cup
  powdered sugar. Slice a vanilla bean and with a knife scoop out all the
  insides with the seeds and add to the bowl. Use your fingers to separate and
  spread the vanilla seeds evenly. Mix with a wooden spoon and set aside.
• Finely grind 1 cup walnuts and set aside.
• Using a spice or coffee grinder, grind 10 whole cloves and 1 cinnamon stick
  broken in half.
• Into a bowl of a stand mixer add 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 ¼ cups
  powdered sugar, ½ cup sifted unsweetened cocoa, 1 cup ground walnuts,
  ground cloves and cinnamon, lemon zest from 1 lemon and mix all
  together with a wooden spoon.
• Add 2 sticks softened unsalted butter. Mix in a stand mixer fitted with a
  dough hook attachment on slow first and then add speed until well mixed.
• Using your hands work with the dough to connect all the ingredients and try
  to form a ball. (It is ok if it stays crumbly.)
• Brush molds or forms with softened unsalted butter to prevent sticking.
• Preheat oven to 350 °F.
• Refer to tips in this recipe for rack placement in your oven.
• Rip parts of the dough and put inside of the molds filling them about half
  way. (It depends how thick you prefer the cookies to be. They will get bigger
  during baking.)
• Bake for about 9 minutes.
• Let cool for about 5 minutes.
• Remove cookies from the molds. (I use a toothpick from the side and
  lift them up.)
• While they are still warm, fully submerge each cookie into the powdered
  sugar so that the cookie is fully coated. (This way the bear paws absorb
  the vanilla sugar.)