Preparation: Make a homemade bear claw with frozen pastry dough. Start by placing a small dollop of filling in the center of a square of dough.
Fold in half and pinch the edge shut. Using a pizza cutter, make four slashes along the folded edge (figure D) and pull each apart slightly (figure E).
Bake for eight to 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn a square of dough into a pastry basket (figure F).
Make two L-shaped cuts on diagonally opposite ends of the dough (figure G).
Fold and cross the outside corners, one under the other (figures H and I), to form a small basket.
Bake until brown, then fill with whipped cream or ice cream. A square of dough is also the starting point of a windmill-shaped pastry.
Place a dollop of filling in the center of a square (figure J) and make a diagonal cut at each corner using a pizza cutter.
Fold the corners to the center of the square to make a windmill shape (figure K). Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.
Tips
- Frozen puff pastry dough is easy to use and can be formed into numerous shapes. Premade tart shells are also available in the frozen-food sections of most grocery stores.
- Use commercial pie crust and pastry dough instead of trying to make dough from scratch. It works really well, and frees up more time to work on the tasty fillings.
- For best results, use a pizza cutter to cut pastry dough.
- There are many canned fillings to choose from, including ones made from almonds, poppy seeds and jam.
- The best pastry brush is a boar bristle brush with a plastic--rather than metal--casing.
