Bear Claws
Puff pastry pockets filled with almond cream, slit into claws, baked for 25 minutes and glazed with icing and flaked almonds.
Photograph credit: Bear claw pastry by Glane23 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The shape is the point. A bear claw is a rectangle of pastry folded over a filling, then cut along the folded edge into four or five short slits that splay apart in the oven like the toes of a paw. The original was a yeasted Danish pastry from American bakeries, but this version, made from puff pastry, is much quicker and gives a flaky, shattering texture.
The filling is almond cream, or frangipane: ground almonds, butter, sugar and an egg, beaten into a thick paste with a drop of almond extract. Spread a line of it down the centre of each pastry rectangle, leaving a border of 1 cm all around for sealing. Too much filling will burst out at the cuts and burn on the tray, so keep it neat.
Cut the slits with a sharp knife, not scissors. Fold the pastry over, press the edges with a fork, and make four cuts through the sealed edge, at right angles to it, about 2 cm deep. Bend each pastry into a gentle curve so the cuts fan open. Chill the shaped pastries for 15 minutes before baking, so the butter in the pastry stays cold.
Brush with beaten egg and scatter with flaked almonds. Bake at 200°C / 390°F until puffed and deep golden. Drizzle with a thin icing made from icing sugar, milk and a drop of almond extract while still slightly warm.
Questions About Bear Claws
How long does Bear Claws take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking, plus 15 minutes of chilling, so allow 1 hour 20 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
How to Make Bear Claws
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Beat the ground almonds, butter, sugar, the egg and almond extract into a thick paste.
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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Cut the pastry into 8 rectangles. Spread a line of filling down the middle of each, leaving a 1 cm border.
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Brush the border with egg, fold over and press the edges. Make 4 cuts along the sealed edge and curve each pastry slightly. Chill for 15 minutes.
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Brush with egg, scatter with flaked almonds and bake for 25 minutes until deep golden.
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Whisk the icing sugar and milk and drizzle over the warm pastries.
Worth Getting Right
- Do not overfill the pastry.
- Chill before baking.
- Cut and curve the pastry to fan the claws.
Serve It With
Coffee · Hot tea · Hot chocolate · Fresh fruit
Storage
Best the day they are made. Keeps for 2 days in a tin.
Bear Claws Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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