Chocolate Bear Paw Cookies are a soft chocolate cookie with a bear paw pattern made out of dark and semi-sweet chocolate.
I made these Chocolate Bear Paw Cookies for my daughter's Golden Teddy Bear Birthday Party, where one side of the dessert table featured polar bear desserts and the other side brown bear desserts.
The polar bear counterpart to these cookies was a sugar cookie with dark chocolate.
To make these cookies, I started with the cookie dough from Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. It's basically a chocolate version of a classic chocolate chip cookie, so they are soft and chewy.
After the cookies came out of the oven, I placed a Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafer and four semi-sweet chocolate chips into each cookie to make the paw pattern.
These cookies were easy, delicious, and so cute!
Ingredients
- flour
- cocoa powder
- baking soda
- salt
- butter
- granulated sugar
- brown sugar
- vanilla extract
- eggs
- Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
- Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
Make the Dough
Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
In the bowl of stand mixer, beat together the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add the eggs and beat well, then gradually add the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
Scoop and Bake the Cookies
Use a 1-inch dough scoop to drop dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing well because the dough will spread when baked, just like with traditional chocolate chip cookies.
Bake the cookies for 6 minutes. or until the cookies are set. The normal baking time for this dough is 8 to 10 minutes, but I prefer to let them finish cooking on the cookie sheet as they cool.
Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for just a couple minutes, then carefully press 1 dark chocolate wafer into the lower center of a cookie, then place 4 semi-sweet chocolate chips around the top of the wafer to represent the "toes" of the bear paw.
While actual bears have 5 toes, I was only able to fit 4 on these cookies.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before packaging or storing.
Storage
Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature, just as you would traditional chocolate chip cookies. For best flavor and texture, these should be consumed within a few days of baking.
Gluten Free Option
I have not tried it myself, but I have good results using Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour in place of all purpose flour in most cake and cookie recipes. The cookies may be slightly grainier, drier, or fragile than with traditional flour, but the flavor is usually identical.
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Bear Paw Cookies
Equipment
- 2 cookie sheets
- parchment paper
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoon sugar
- 6 tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
For Decorating:
- 24 Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
- 96 Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla on medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and beat well.
- Gradually add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
- Use a 1-inch dough scoop to portion 12 scoops of dough onto each parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing well so the cookies do not touch as they spread during baking.
- Bake 6 minutes. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute.
- Place a single melting wafer flat side up in the lower-center of a cookie and place 4 semi-sweet chocolate chips flat side up around the top of the melting wafer to make the toes of the bear paw.
- Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet completely before packaging or storing.
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