What is a bear claw? Really?
I grew up believing that a bear claw is a delicious, slightly flaky, doughnut-like object filled with marzipan (sweet almond paste).
A couple days ago I went into a doughnut shop and ordered a bear claw, and it was shaped right, but was not flaky at all and in fact was filled, not with marzipan, but with really sub-par apple pie filling.
So today I went into a different doughnut shop and asked about the bear claws. I was told they were filled with apple and cinnamon.
Have I gone crazy? What, pray-tell is a bearclaw, really?
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16 Answers
It sounds like the thing that you got may have been an apple fritter.
However, this Wikipedia(pastry) about bear claws suggests that they can indeed be made with other types of fillings. I always think of bear claws the way that you have described them. Who knew?
I wish I knew where to get “real” bear claws…
apple fritters are a little different than these were, but it was closer to an apple fritter than it was to my version of bear claws…
I thought they were simply apple fritters. It sounds like I am shopping at the wrong places.
All I can say is that Indians made necklaces with them and wore them around their necks as a sign of bravery or for having done something totally badass that would make Gandalf proud. Doughnuts, wha…?
I always thought they were large,doughy doughtnuts with nothing inside.—Oh well…-
Around here Bearclaws or bearsign are doughnuts sprinkled in sugar.
Great. Here’s something for the US Congress to sink its teeth into and legislate. Sorry for the pun. You’ll be sorrier if they get hold of that idea.
You wont’ believe it, but this thread made me so hungry that I actually went out and drove to the donut shop and bought a bear claw! Yum!
@Kardamom
I just made them for Easter. So I am baking carrot-strawberry muffins instead. :>)
I’ve never seen them sold as anything but a flaky pasty shaped crudely like a paw, with apple filling. Perhaps it is regional. I live in southern New England.
I think the bearclaw refers to a rectangular puff paste filled pastry about 4 Inches by 2.5 inches with one long side of the rectangle cut about in an inch from the edge in five places to make the claws. The ‘claws’ separate from each other as they bake. You can fill them with various fillings: poppyseed, almond paste, prune, apricot or, I gather, apple. They are delicious.
I have only seen them as yeast raised pastry cut like @Sunny2 described, but unfilled like @lucillelucillelucille said. Must be a regional thing.
I had no idea there were so many variations. I thought they were always a flaky pastry filled with date paste!
@crisw oh my! i shall have to now!
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