GGRRRRRR! Bear Claws!

Yeah, that's right, people: I made these awesome-looking bear claws!!

"How?" you ask. "What are the steps to baking up my own?"

1) Whip up a batch of Danish dough. Don't forget that you'll need to fold in a butter insert, and complete a total of three 3-folds. As you need to allow the dough to rest 30 minutes between each 3-fold, make sure you set aside about two hours for making the dough. The 30-minute rest/cooling period between the 3-turns is crucial: it re-chills the butter and gives the gluten in the dough time to relax. Also important: brush any excess flour off of the dough, with a brush, as you fold the dough. Extra flour on the surface can interfere with the dough rising.

I use a small mixer to mix up my dough, but this video, in which the instructor mixes the dough by hand, shows one way of rolling out the dough and adding the butter insert. Note: This instructor also adds one 4-fold, which I don't do. I use 4-folds when making puff pastry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg-zXn_YpLI

2) After the last resting, roll out the dough and fill the bear claws with your choice of filling: cinnamon/sugar/raisins, perhaps, or chocolate, or maybe you're a big fan of almond paste. Or maybe you can't get enough of maple syrup??


3) Here I chose to go with the cinnamon/sugar/raisin combo. Be generous with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.


4) After rolling the dough into a long log, I scaled out 4-oz portions. As you can see from the photo, that makes a hefty claw. A bench scraper is a handy tool to have for cutting through the dough; so much easier than a knife! By pressing down firmly on the bench scraper, you get cleanly cut edges.

5) Don't forget to cut the "toes" into the claws, then spread the toes out a bit to produce the traditional bear claw shape.

6) Proof the shaped dough, in a proof box or warm place in your kitchen, directly on your parchment paper-lined baking sheet. The heat will  plump up the bear claws nicely. Then egg wash the tops with a brush (egg wash is made simply by combining a beaten whole egg with water or milk) so that the tops brown.

7) When the claws are cooled, drizzle a glaze on the tops. Here I've added a chocolate glaze (I used fondant, which I flavored with chocolate) over the tops with a wire whisk. Note: this is a clean sheet of parchment paper. The paper that was under the bear claws for baking got quite "littered" with chocolate during the icing. Always place the finished product on display trays or new paper, so they look nice. And don't forget: New York law requires the use of gloves when handling ready-to-serve food items!

**some things I love: parchment paper and throw-away latex gloves!