The Twelve Treats of Christmas: Gingerbread Bears

I brought these little cuties to the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange hosted by the ladies group at my church. They are so much fun to make and even more fun to eat! They are also very versatile. I usually decorate them simply with currants: the tiny currants are so cute, and they don't compete with the flavor of the cookie itself, which is delicious. I have used chocolate chips before, which is how my DH likes them. I've never frosted them, but they certainly can be frosted. You can use your imagination to decorate them however and with whatever you wish! Obviously, you don't even need to make bears with the dough, but I started using bears years ago, and now I can't do it any other way. They're just too cute!
Gingerbread Bears
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins or currants, optional

Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Whisk dry ingredients together (excluding raisins/currants) and blend into molasses mixture until smooth. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350F. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4" thickness. Cut with teddy bear or gingerbread man shaped cookie cutters. Push raisins or currants into dough for the eyes and buttons. Bake 8-10 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets, or until firm. Remove from pan to cool on wire rack.

It's not real QUICK, because you really have to refrigerate the dough for a good hour before rolling it out, otherwise it will be too sticky. Even at that, it's occasionally on the sticky side. Also, there's all the rolling and cutting, and decorating that take up some time.

For the same reasons, it's not exactly EASY, either.

Whether or not it is CHEAP depends on if you keep molasses and the various spices on hand or not. They are not expensive in and of themselves, but if you have to buy them just for this recipe, then it's not exactly cheap. I usually try to keep molasses on hand, even though I only use it for a few random recipes on a rare occasion, and I always have those spices, so for me it's not a problem. I did buy the currants specifically for this recipe, but they are actually cheaper than raisins and they last a long time, so it's money well spent!

I actually made something semi-HEALTHY for Christmas, whaddyaknow?! Molasses is a relatively healthy sweetener, and there's very little sugar in this recipe. And did you see the whole wheat in the ingredients list? And of course, decorating with currants instead of frosting is a very healthy choice. Yes, a Christmas cookie you don't have to be ashamed of!