SUPER EASY CREAM PUFFS

If you are looking for something super simple, yet impressive enough to WOW your dinner guests over the holidays, I suggest you make these cream puffs.  They are SUPER easy to make, SUPER economical and SUPER fun to serve.

 

 

1/2 cup butter (cubed)(no substitutions)
1 cup water

Bring the water and cubed butter to a boil (just until the butter melts). While it's still boiling, add one cup of flour (all at once) and stir with a sturdy spoon until the mixture turns into a thick "glob" (it just takes a few seconds).

 

Remove from heat and put "the glob" in your stand mixer. Mix on medium speed while you add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

 

Mix on high for a couple of minutes or so, just to cool off the dough a little.

With the mixer still running, add four eggs, ONE AT A TIME, beating well in between each egg. The final dough will be quite sticky.

Either grease your cookie sheet or line with parchment paper (I like to use parchment paper) and place spoonfuls of this mixture (about the size of a golf ball?) on the prepared cookie sheet, making sure they are about 3-4 inches apart since, as they bake, they will puff up a lot.

Put in a PRE-HEATED 400°F oven and immediately turn the oven DOWN TO 350°F. Bake for one hour. 

When you take them out of the oven, poke a small hole in the side of the baked cream puff to let steam escape. I have forgotten to poke that hole before and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. 

Cool completely on a wire rack.

They come out of the oven

LIGHTER THAN AIR!!

 

To serve, cut in half and fill with sweetened whipped cream or berries and whipped cream or pudding, or ice cream or anything your family likes.



Dust the tops with powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate sauce.

VARIATION: If you leave out the sugar and vanilla, these puffs are delicious filled with chicken salad, seafood salad, etc.

 

MINI BLUEBERRY CRUMB TARTS

I found this recipe, a while back, on The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch and decided to give it a try. I have used the pastry shell many times in other recipes like Pecan Tassies, but I never thought of using it with a fruit filling until Shelby's post....what a great idea!!

CRUST

3 ounces cream cheese (Shelby uses fat free)
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour

Mix until smooth, wrap in plastic and chill for an hour.  This dough is lovely and very easy to work with. While the dough is chilling, make the blueberry filling.

BLUEBERRY FILLING

4 cups of blueberries (if frozen - thaw and drain well)
Juice of one lemon
3/4 cup sugar (Shelby uses Splenda)
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/8 cup cold water

Mix the blueberries, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a slow boil and then whisk in the cornstarch slurry (cornstarch and water mixed together). Keep stiring so that lumps do not form. Continue to cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until very thick.  Remove from heat and let cool.

CRUMB TOPPING

1 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (Shelby uses Splenda brown sugar)
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature

Work these ingredients together, with your fingers, until you get a soft crumbly texture.

NOTE: This makes a TON of crumb topping. I cut the ingredients in half and I STILL had too much topping, so I put the rest in the freezer for my next baking project.

ASSEMBLY

Roll the chilled dough into 1" balls (this recipe makes about 20-24 tarts). Place each ball of dough into ungreased mini-cupcake pan.

Use a tart tamper (or anything in your kitchen that has a large rounded end that you can use) to tamp down the dough, making sure the dough comes up on the sides of each tart. You can also use your fingers to make a depression in the dough ball and work the pastry crust up the sides of the tart well.

Fill each tart with the cooled blueberry filling and a generous teaspoon of the crumb topping.

Bake in a pre-heated 375 oven for 15-20 minutes (my oven took 25 minutes) or until the crust gets a nice golden color. Let the tarts COOL IN THE PAN for 10-15 minutes before lifting them out.

NOTE: I love versatile recipes like this one. I think ANY fruit filling would work well here; I'm trying apple next!!

SUPER EASY CHERRY STRUDEL

This strudel is made with Pepperidge Farm Puff Pasty (from the freezer section) and it couldn't be easier. It slices beautifully and it is delicious served warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it is also excellent at room temperature. It is a huge hit at our house!!

 

 

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (thawed)
(1) 14½ oz. can red tart pie cherries packed in water
¾ cup granulated sugar (divided)
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon corn starch
pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 drops red food coloring (optional)

Drain the cherries (but save the juice).  Mix ½ cup of the juice from the cherries, with half of the sugar and all of the cornstarch and a pinch of salt.

Cook (constantly stirring) the juice mixture on medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes or until it gets ULTRA thick.  Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the sugar, the drained cherries and almond extract. Mix well and lay some plastic wrap on the surface of the hot mixture and chill for an hour (or until really cold).

CRUST
You can either let one sheet of puff pastry (a box comes with 2 sheets) thaw in the refrigerator overnight (thats the best) or you can speed thaw on the kitchen counter (I wrap it in plastic wrap) for about an hour. The box says 40 minutes, but it really is a lot easier to work with if you let it sit for an hour.

Dust your counter with a little flour and roll out the dough to a 12" x 16" rectangle.  Spread the cherry filling on one half (keep it about an inch away from the sides) like this:

 

 

Starting with the fruit end, just roll it up and crimp the ends.  Lay it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (or spray with vegetable spray). and brush it all over with egg wash (1 egg beaten with a teaspoon of water). Sprinkle generously with granulated sugar and then cut a few slash marks across the top of the strudel (for venting) but don't cut too deep.

 

 

Bake in preheated 375 oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.  Makes one 12" strudel. Enjoy!!

NOTE: For those who aren't familiar with it, Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry is found in the freezer section of your grocery store, near the Cool Whip etc., it comes in a 17.3 ounce package that contains 2 sheets.

EASY FRUIT LADDER

I've made this fruit ladder a million times. It is super simple, fast, looks impressive on any dinner table and is delicious. The dough works beautifully, is very forgiving and never fails!! You can make this ladder with any pre-cooked fruit filling (home made or commercial).

I have had people tell me this looks hard to make, but trust me, it is not. There is just one little trick: roll the dough out into a rectangle and then move it to your baking sheet BEFORE you try to make the ladder. You can't move the ladder (and keep it's shape) after it is filled. This dough is the real secret to this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350°

1 cup butter softened
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour

Mix ingredients with an electric mixer (the dough will be a little sticky before it is chilled). Divide dough in half (this recipe makes TWO ladders). Put each ball of dough in some plastic wrap and rough it into a large disk shape…cover well and refrigerate 1 hour (extremely important).

After an hour, remove from fridge and flour your counter top and rolling pin. Roll one of the disks into a rectangle about 15” x 10”. Pick up the crust rectangle (it will not break) and lay it on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Now I could describe, at length how to do this next step, but a picture will describe it much quicker:

 

Find the center of your crust rectangle, and spread your fruit filling in a 3” wide strip, long-wise, right down the center of the rectangle (keep the fruit about an inch away from each end of the ladder). Each ladder will take ½ can of commercial fruit filling.

.

Cut the dough, on both sides of the fruit, into equal strips, but be sure you stay about an inch away from the fruit filling. Pull the strips back over the fruit (one at a time) in a criss-cross fashion (the strips just lay on top of each other, don't crimp). The only part that is crimped is the very first strip (on each end of the ladder), it should be pinched together.

 

Bake the fruit ladder for 30-40 minutes (in a preheated 350 degree oven) or until lightly golden. Run a spatula under the ladder to make sure it is loose, and then slide it off onto a serving plate. Drizzle it with a simple powdered sugar glaze and decorate with nuts (I like candied nuts), sprinkles, or any decoration you like.

 

I have tried lots of different fruits, cherry, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, apple strawberry, blackberry, etc. Commercial pie filling works as well as home made.

RASPBERRY FILLING

This recipe for raspberry filling can be used a dozen different ways. You can use it in puff pastry turnovers like the photo below, or between cake layers, inside cupcakes or donuts, on french toast, on ice cream, on cheesecake and on and on. It is a great basic recipe that only takes a few minutes to put together and can easily be doubled.

(1) 12 ounce bag of frozen raspberries (not in syrup)
½ cup + 3 tablespoons of water
¾ cup white sugar
1 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup cold water

Gently simmer the raspberries, water, sugar and lemon juice for 15 minutes, in a small heavy bottomed pan. After 15 minutes, you can push the berries through a sieve if want a seedless filling (I leave the seeds in).

Bring the strained berries back to a full simmer. Dissolve the cornstarch in the ¼ cup of water and whisk it into the simmering berries. Bring it back to a boil, and simmer for another five minutes. Cool/chill completely. It will thicken as it cools.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the above raspberry turnovers, I just thawed a sheet of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough for 45 minutes and then floured my board a little. I unfolded the dough and rolled it out flat (about 2" bigger than right out of the box). I cut the sheet into 6 pieces and put a dollop of raspberry filling into the center and folded the dough over (wetting the edges) and crimping them. I cut small vent holes in the top of the turnovers and baked them on an ungreased sheet at 400 for 15-18 minutes (or until they were golden).

You can drizzle a glaze on them if you want, or just dust them with powdered sugar. Hubby likes them "unadorned". They are light as air, crisp and flaky, just right for breakfast or an instant dessert.

FOOL-PROOF BUTTERHORNS - A BAKING CHALLENGE!!

Katy, over at Food for A Hungry Soul has offered to help Ingrid from Baseball Baking and Books get over her fear of yeast dough. Enjoying a challenge, I have offered to put in my two cents worth. Katy and I will be posting a few "how to" yeast recipes with hopes of convincing you ALL to give yeast a try.

Ingrid is not alone in this yeast-phobia. A number of you have expressed the same fears, so I am challenging you to try this no-knead Butterhorn recipe. It is the perfect yeast dough starter recipe since it is pretty much goof-proof!! The look on your families faces, when you serve these delicious Butterhorns, will convince you that yeast dough is worth every effort!!!

I found this recipe on Mennonite Girls Can Cook It produces a dozen sweet and "light as air" pastries that your family will love.

OK, BLOGGERS, YOU HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED (that means you too Ingrid!!) I hope everyone will post their end result photos!!

ANSWERING QUESTIONS:

1. What kind of yeast do I use? ANY dry active yeast will work!! You will find it in the baking isle in a two or three little envelope strip (or you can buy a 4 ounce jar of it). You can also buy it by the pound vacuum bag at Costco, but stick with the little envelope strips until you start to bake a LOT. I keep my yeast in the fridge. Check the expiration date before you use it. I like the Red Star brand of yeast, but I've accidentally bought bread machine yeast before and it worked great. ANY yeast that is called dry active yeast will do the trick!! Yes, "fast acting" yeast is perfectly fine...anything but "wet cake yeast from the refrigerated section".

2. Will these Butterhorns freeze well? Yes they do. I frost mine, then let them "set" until the frosting has dried to the touch, then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and put a bunch of them in a large freezer bag.

3. My unbaked butterhorns look flat, what did I do wrong? In this particular case, the dough needed a little more flour. If a dough does not have enough flour, it can not "support" itself as it rises.

4. Do I use the dough hook? For tranditional yeast doughs yes, but this is not a traditional yeast dough, so I would use a regular beater or a paddle beater and not the dough hook for the butterhorns.

Please do not hesitate to ask questions, I'll post your answers right here, so check back.

1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (room temperature)
2 cups all purpose flour
1½ tablespoons white sugar
½ teaspoon salt (do not leave out)
½ cup of butter (no substitutions)

Measure 2 cups flour (spoon into cup and level off), 1½ tablespoons of sugar and the salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender until you have very small pieces of butter when you are done, it should look like oatmeal. (I did this step in the food processor and just pulsed it a few times, it looked like this)



In a small dish, mix the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar; stir in ¼ cup of warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes so that the yeast can start to bubble or activate. OK, this is where most novice bakers get freaked out (the temperature of the water). Too hot and it will kill the yeast, too cold and it will slow the yeast down (but it won't hurt it). I always think of the correct temperature as "baby bottle warm". For those of you who have children, you'll know what temperature this is. You are aiming for a temperature that you could safely feed a bottle fed baby.

After the yeast mixture has been sitting for 10 minutes, it should look like the next photo. If it doesn't, don't despair, just throw it out and try this step again. This is called proofing the yeast (I always think of it as "proving the yeast is good"). It's done this way so you don't have to throw a whole batch of dough away if the yeast isn't any good. Tip: make sure your yeast is fresh, check the expiration date. I keep mine (I buy it by the jar) in the fridge.

Click on this photo so you can see it better, those little dots in the bowl are bubbles

This is what you want your yeast to look like after 10 minutes, nice and foamy.

Warm the milk until the chill is off (I used my microwave) and then add the slightly beaten egg. In a large bowl, add the (milk-egg mixture) and the (yeast-water mixture) to the dry ingredients. Stir well until it is all blended together. It will be a very soft dough (not a kneadable dough). I used my heavy duty electric mixer to mix everything together. It will look like this:


Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (I chilled it overnight). The next day, sprinkle your counter with some flour and turn the dough out onto the counter. Sprinkle the top of the dough with more flour and roll the dough around until all sides are coated with a little flour so its not so sticky anymore. Roll (or pat) the dough out to ½" thick rectangle. The dough will be sticky during this stage, but don't give up, just keep lightly flouring your counter and rolling pin.

Cut the rectangle in to ¾" strips. Pick up a strip and dust the excess flour off of it. Twist the strips a bunch of times and then place one end on the counter and wind the twisted strip (in a single layer) around and around (tuck a tiny piece of the "tail" under the pastry) Sorry I forgot to photograph this step.
Place the rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet. Very lightly, spritz the tops of the rolls with vegetable spray so the plastic doesn't stick to them. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let them raise for an hour (or until they are doubled in size SEE NOTE BELOW). Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes (my oven took 15 minutes).
Frost the Butterhorns with a simple glaze made out of 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and ¼ teaspoon of almond extract and enough milk to make the glaze the right consistency.
NOTE: I put a tablespoon of raspberry pie filling in the center of my butterhorns before I baked them, but it isn't necessary. You can just frost them or frost them and sprinkle with toasted nuts.

NOTE: Dry active yeast requires water, sugar and warmth to "do its thing" in a bread recipe. When a recipe tells you to "let the dough raise for an hour" keep the warmth of you kitchen in mind. If your kitchen is on the cool side, it will take longer than the recommended time for your dough to raise. If your kitchen is hot, it will raise quicker than the recommended time. When dealing with a dough that is chilled (like the Butterhorns) the recommended raising time is an hour, however, I found that my dough took just short of TWO hours to double in size. If you bake the recipe before the dough has completely raised, it will turn out dense and heavy.

MAPLE TWISTS

I highly recommend that you visit Mennonite Girls Can Cook. They posted a sweet roll recipe that looked delicious; it was called Charlotte Rose's Maple Twists. Three hours later, this beauty was cooling on my kitchen counter. It may sound complicated, but it really isn't and the final product is a show stopper.

CLICK ON THIS PHOTO TO GET A BETTER LOOK.

DOUGH
2 and 3/4 to 3 CUPS ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
3/4 CUP MILK
1/4 CUP BUTTER
3 TABLESPOONS SUGAR
1/2 TEASPOON SALT
1 TABLESPOON DRY ACTIVE YEAST
1 TEASPOON MAPLE EXTRACT
1 EGG

Heat the milk and butter until very warm. Blend it (in stand mixer) with 1 cup of flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, yeast, egg and maple extract. Beat this on low for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time (you may not need all 3 cups). Knead into a soft dough. It will become smooth an elastic in about five minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 45 minutes (or till at least double in size).

While the dough is rising, make the streusel:
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon maple extract
Mix everything together and set aside.

ASSEMBLY
After the dough rises, divide it into three pieces. Roll each piece into a 12" circle. Place the first circle on a buttered 14" pizza pan (I used parchment paper and sprayed it a little). Top the first circle with 1/3 of the streusel mixture and spread it around as thin as you can get it (repeat with 2nd and 3rd circles).

Find something that is 2" across (like a dixie cup) and center it on the circles (press down a little to make a mark). Using scissors, cut from the outer edge into the cup mark, making 16 wedges. Sounds confusing, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is what it will look like:

Gently life and twist each section 5 times. Tuck the end in just a little so that it stays twisted. It will look like this:

Lightly cover this with plastic wrap and let it rise for about 45 minutes to an hour. Bake in a 375° oven for 18-22 minutes (mine took the full 22 minutes). Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before you top with glaze.

GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (my tweak)

Whisk until smooth and drizzle over warm rolls.

NOTE: I didn't have any maple extract, so I used a Crescent flavoring called Mapeline (worked great).
 

NOTE: Sorry about the photo quality, the maple twists were too big to fit into my light box, so I had to take the photo on the kitchen counter...like the old days, lol.

(FAUX) ENTENMANN'S APPLE COFFEE CAKE which is my 100th post!!

If you like Entenmann's coffee cakes, you will adore this recipe. It is similar, but OH! so much tastier. It is basically a sweet (yeast)dough that is easily mixed in your stand mixer for 3 minutes, then it sits for 20 minutes, is formed and stuffed with apples, then put in the fridge for two hours and finally baked for 30 minutes. It is SO worth the little effort it takes and it makes two nice big coffee cakes. I hope you try it this weekend! (Click on this photo to see the full Yummm factor).

 Make the apple filling first so it can cool. In a large frying pan, melt 1/3 cup of butter and saute five Granny Smith (peeled, cored and sliced) apples over medium heat for about eight minutes or until almost tender. Stir in 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Cook gently, stirring, until thickened (about 15 minutes). Set aside to cool.

For the dough, put the following in your stand mixer:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon yeast

Whisk the above ingredients together to mix well.

In a small bowl, whisk the following ingredients together and then add them to the dry mixture.

1/3 cup melted (but not hot) butter
1 egg
3/4 cup hot tap water

Knead the dough with your machine, on medium speed, for three minutes. If it seems too dry, add an extra tablespoon of water. After three minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl (dough will be very soft and sticky), cover and let it sit for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, divide dough in half (makes 2 coffee cakes) and roll each half out on floured surface to a 12x14 rectangle. Place each rectangle on its own parchment lined cookie sheet. Put apple filling down the center and then cut the sides like this: Fold the little strips back over the apple filling (no need to pinch it, just lay them over). Cover each coffee cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours. After two hours, take out of fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, top each coffee cake with struesel topping (which is made with 3/4 cup sliced almonds + 6 tablespoons all purpose flour + 1/4 cup powdered sugar + 3 tablespoons butter + 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon - cut butter into dry ingredients until fine crumbs).
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, then turn heat down to 350 for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Drizzle simple vanilla glaze over the top and decorate with more sliced almonds.

This is what the luscious coffee cake looks like inside...Yummmm!

This sounds like a lot of steps, but it really is easy to make. Once you make it, you'll never be happy with Entenmann's again!

BREAD MACHINE CINNAMON ROLLS (and a Thank You)

Until I started digging through my old recipes for this blog, it never occurred to me how many recipes I have for hubby’s sweet tooth! It has been quite an eye opener. Here is yet another favorite. I tried to make cinnamon rolls out of bread dough for years with minimal success. They were always tasty while still warm, but got “tough” when they cooled off. The addition of egg, makes all the difference. This recipe is very good (warm or cold) and it’s made in a bread machine, so it is as easy as it gets.

¼ cup water
¼ cup butter, melted
(½) of a 3.4 ounce box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup warm milk
1 egg room temperature
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour
1 packet of yeast (I use 1 tablespoon)

FILLING
¼ cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

FROSTING
½ of an 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoons milk

BREAD MACHINE INSTRUCTIONS: In pan of machine, mix water, melted butter, pudding mix, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, flour and yeast. Set machine on dough cycle and press start. When dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto lightly floured counter and roll 17” x 10”. Spread with soft butter. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon & nuts and sprinkle over dough. Roll dough up (start with long side). Slice into 16 one inch pieces and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in warm place until double (about an hour). Bake in 350° PREHEATED oven for 15-20 minutes. Take out of pan and frost with cream cheese frosting.

NOTE: I don’t own a bread machine, so I do this the old fashioned way and it works great. I don’t cut 16 one inch pieces, John likes thicker rolls, so I cut about 8-10 of them.

LIGHT AS AIR PINWHEELS

I found this fabulous recipe for Phyllo Pinwheels on a blog called Cindy’s Place. It is very quick and easy and yet so impressive to look at. They are deliciously light as air and would look fantastic on a baby shower or wedding shower table.
1 package of Pepperidge Farm phyllo dough (freezer section)
1 egg
maraschino cherries

Thaw both sheets of phyllo dough for 40 minutes or until soft enough to handle. Work with one sheet at a time. Unfold the phyllo dough and press out any fold marks. Cut the phyllo dough into 3 full length rectangles, then cut each rectangle into 3 squares each (total 9 per sheet).

For each square, cut (starting in the corners) ¾ of the way to the center (see diagram). Lift a cut corner and secure it in the center (using a micro-dot of water if necessary).Repeat for other corners like this:

Place pinwheels on parchment paper lined baking sheet and brush them with egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water). Set half of a maraschino cherry in the center. Bake in preheated oven (350°) for 30 minutes or until golden. Remove to cooling rack. Bring 1 cup of powdered sugar + 2 tablespoons of water + 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract + ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to a boil and remove from heat. Brush the cooked pinwheels with this glaze. The glaze will dry to the touch after a little while. These are SO tasty!

NOTE: Cindy's web page is in Portuguese, however, she has been more than helpful in interpreting recipes. I hope you go visit her.

BEAR CLAWS

These bear claw pastries are delicious. The dough mixes very easily (no kneading) and the filling for the pastry is equally as easy. The frustrating part is assembly. It is such a sticky dough, that it requires tons of flour on your counter and you have to wash your hands and utensils about every 30 seconds or so to make things work smoothly. Assembly is a little tricky and requires patience; if you can tolerate that annoyance, the final product is worth it. This recipe makes about a dozen nice size pastries, however the dough and filling will keep in the fridge for up to three days, so you do not have to bake them all at once.

PASTRY
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon of dry active yeast
¼ cup warm water
¼ cup white sugar
3 eggs yolks
½ teaspoon salt
(1) small (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
Melt the butter and let it cool down to 110 degrees (should only feel good and warm to the touch, not hot). Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm water. Mix these two liquids together and add ¼ cup sugar, egg yolks, salt, evaporated milk, and flour. Mix well and cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge at least 24 hours (or up to three days).

PASTRY FILLING
½ cup butter (room temperature)
1 + 1/3 cups unsifted powdered sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
8 ounces (1 cup) almond paste
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 egg whites
¾ cup finely chopped almonds
Beat softened butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add 2/3 cup flour and almond paste. Beat with electric mixer until crumbly and evenly mixed; add lemon zest and two egg whites. Beat until smooth. Stir in ¾ cup finely chopped almonds. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm (one to thee days).

ASSEMBLY
Put a nice thick layer of flour on your counter and rolling pin (this dough is STICKY, but you can dust any excess flour off later, with a pastry brush). Roll the dough out to a 20” x 12” rectangle, keeping the edges as straight as possible. Cut the dough (length-wise) into three sections, each about 4” wide.

Flour your counter and hands and roll the almond filling into three 20” “ropes” (the diameter of your thumb). Keep washing your hands because the filling is sticky too! Lay one of the “ropes” in the center of each 20” dough strip and flatten it just a little. Fold the dough over the “rope”, matching the other (cut) edge. Cut each filled 20” strip into 4” pastries (brush excess flour off with a pastry brush) and lay them on a parchment lined baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut 3 slits in each pastry like this:

Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of this stage, forgive the crude drawing

Flour your knife so it does not stick to the dough and wipe it off often). Use the tip of the knife to separate the “claws” a little. Lightly beat the remaining egg white and brush over the bear claws. top with sliced almonds and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Let pastries raise for 45 minutes and then bake in preheated 375° oven for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes about a dozen.

NOTE: I hope I have not scared you away from this recipe. It really is no harder than a simple piecrust, but I felt it only fair to warn you about the sticky dough.
NOTE: I put a simple glaze on some of the pastries and some I left plain. If you have trouble finding sanding sugar (it really adds a special shine and “finish” to baked goods), check Wal-Marts baking isle, near the sprinkles. They sell a Wiltons large grain transparent sprinkle that will work just as well.