1 c Butter (or margarine)
2/3 c Brown sugar
2/3 c Corn syrup and/or molasses
4 c Flour
1 1/2 ts Cinnamon
1 ts Ginger
1/2 ts Ground cloves
3/4 ts Baking soda
1 Egg; lightly beaten
1 1/2 ts Vanilla extract
In a saucepan combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook and
stir
over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Pour into large mixing
bowl; cool
5 minutes. Sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking
soda.
Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture; mix well. Add flour mixture;
beat
til well mixed. Divide dough in half, cover and chill 2 hours or
overnight. For each bear, shape dough into one 1-inch ball, one
3/4-inch
ball, six 1/2-inch balls and one 1/4-inch ball. On ungreased cookie
sheet
flatten the 1-inch ball to 1/2″ thickness for body. Attach the
3/4-inch
ball for head and flatten to 1/2″ thickness. Attach the 1/2-inch
balls for
arms, legs and ears. Attach the 1/4-inch ball for nose. Bake at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, cool and decorate. I usually make these
smaller than described here; about 1/2 the size. Also, the ears
start to
look like MOUSE ears if they’re not a little smaller than the arms
and
legs. Roll the nose ball to make it more oval in shape and place it
on the
LOWER half of the bear’s face. These can be decorated with any
icing– I
use tinted Royal icing made from meringue powder to add eyes, nose
and bow
tie to each bear. For Easter, make these into bunnies. Use only
light corn
syrup, no molasses. Substitute white sugar for the brown sugar. Omit
spices and add a bit of almond extract if desired. Make them the
same way,
but make two long ears on the top and two cheek-balls instead of the
nose-ball. Decorate with pastel icings. Karen Mintzias TCVC49A
Yields
24 Servings