In this series about Christmas cookies, I am introducing four of the most popular and easiest cookies using the recipes I learned from my grandmother. Delicate Christmas cookies appeared on the Christmas tables of the upper classes of Europe in the early 1800s. Prior to that, “crackers” sweetened with honey were considered a treat. Sugar was still rare, and honey was also expensive, so sweets were eaten on special occasions, such as Solstice celebrations or Christmas. For centuries, cookies were made in the shapes of animals. The pagans believed that eating the animal-shaped cookies passed the animal’s traits on to the eater. Many recipes have been handed down from generation to generation with small regional differences in ingredients.

Bear’s claws are traditional Czech Christmas cookies. They are best baked early, on the first Advent holiday, so they have time to rest and soften before Christmas. Learn more about Czech pagan, Advent, and Christmas traditions here.

finished bear claw cookies sitting on a wooden board on a counter

Bear Claws

Magda Born

In this series about Christmas cookies, I am introducing four of the most popular and easiest cookies using the recipes I learned from my grandmother. Bear’s claws are traditional Czech Christmas cookies. They are best baked early, on the first Advent holiday, so they have time to rest and soften before Christmas.

Baking requires exact measurements. One gram is .035 oz. Most scales have ounce and grams settings.

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Course Dessert

Equipment

Metal cookie molds

Ingredients

350 g All-purpose flour
260 g Butter European-style butter produces the best results
250 g Confectioner’s sugar
120 g Finely ground walnuts
50 g Dutch cocoa
2-2.5 tsp Ground cinnamon
6-8 Ground cloves
1 Tbs Milk

Instructions

All ingredients should be at room temperature.
This dough takes a while to put together, so be patient. Wrap the finished dough in plastic wrap and let it rest overnight in the fridge.
The finished dough should have a silky consistency and should sit overnight until all the spices come together. Let the dough come up to room temperature before working with it. The molds and dough should be at the same temperature. It is not necessary to grease the cookie mold because this cookie dough contains enough butter to prevent them from sticking. The grandmother’s wisdom to prevent the cookies from sticking to the mold is to never wash them in soap water.
Push the dough into the molds. The inside must be thin, the edges smooth.
Put the filled molds on a baking sheet, and bake them at 350F, paring up molds of the same size, so that they bake evenly. The dough will first puff up in the molds but later deflate. Because the cookies are a dark color, watch carefully so they do not burn. If your oven does not bake evenly, the cookie sheets will need to be rotated halfway through baking.
While the cookies are still warm, remove them from their mold by gently tapping them on a cutting board or countertop. Cover the still-warm cookies with vanilla confectioner’s sugar.