My mom saw a picture of these cookies online and loved them so I decided to make them for her. I used my basic shortbread cookie recipe because it holds its shape with cookie cutters and well because it's delicious. 

What you need:
Shortbread Cookie Dough (if you're not using my recipe make sure you use a non spreading cookie recipe otherwise you'll just have blobs with almonds)
Plain Almonds
Bear cookie cutter (I originally bought a cookie cutter from bulk barn, but was unimpressed with it's ears so I ordered another one from Cheap Cookie Cutters)
Water
Toothpick 

What to do:
Using your cookie cutter cut your chilled cookie dough, as close together as possible so you can make the most of your dough. You can reuse the scrap dough bymixing it together and rolling it out again (make sure to chill it in the fridge after each time you roll it out)

Once you have your bear shapes cut out, using your toothpick give each two eyes and a nose by simply pressing the sharp end of the toothpick into the dough. 

Now place an almond across the bear's body diagonally. Dab a tiny bit of water on the bear's "paws" and very gently fold it's arms over to hug the almond.

Once all your bears are done place them on a lined baking sheet and into an oven preheated to 350 F and bake for approximately 12 minutes. The bears should not brown they might ever so slightly darken around the edges. 

Remove them from the oven and allow to rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. These are so much fun, adults and kids love them, not to mention they taste amazing, the almond toasts in the oven giving it an extra depth of flavour. 

You can really see the difference between the two cutters, I even had to make my own ears for the ones on the left, but both still super cute.