Preliminaries part 1 ★ Sift the flour and baking powder together.

Preliminiaries part 2 ★ Sift the cocoa powder and sugar together, separately from the flour. Bring the butter and egg to room temperature.

Mix the soft room temperature butter well in a bowl.

Add the white sugar to the butter in several batches, and cream well until the mixture is pale.

Add the beaten egg to the butter-sugar mixture in several batches. Mix well until pale and well blended.

Cut and fold in the flour with a spatula, until the dough comes together. ※ Cut the flour in, don't knead it. ♪ Add the vanilla essence here too.

When the dough comes together in one mass, set aside a small amount of it, and mix the cocoa powder into the rest. (The plain dough is used for the ears and mouth part only, so you only need to set aside a small amount. ♪)

Take out a little of the cocoa dough, and add more cocoa powder to it. (This darker dough is used for the eyes, nose and mouth parts, so you only need a little. ♪ Do make it as dark as possible with the added cocoa though.)

Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap, and rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. The first stage is complete. ＾＾ Take a break, then keep going. ☆

Line a cutting board and an oven baking sheet with kitchen parchment paper. Roll the main cocoa dough about 3 to 5mm thick, and cut it out with the bear shaped cutter. ※ Place the cut out pieces on the lined baking sheet.

Take the baked cookies out and put them on a cooling rack. Stage 2 is done. ＾＾ There's just a bit more work left to complete the cookies. ☆

Chop up the chocolate roughly and place it into a bowl. Melt the chocolate by suspending the bowl over a pan of hot water. Spread the melted chocolate on the base cookies that don't have the face parts, and put the face-decorated cookies on top.