By Mama drove up Saturday with a quart of frozen wild huckleberries from her Wyoming-cousins visit last month. Aunt Susie (Mama’s second-cousin in Cheyenne, the one who runs the small ranch outside Laramie) had picked the huckleberries in the fall of 2021 from the patch behind the ranch house and frozen them in quart bags for distribution at the Christmas family-reunion. Mama had not made it to the Wyoming reunion in 2021 because of Brayden’s birth-week timing. Aunt Susie had sent Mama’s quart home with Mama’s sister Aunt Lori, who drove the quart down to Sapulpa in February. Mama had now driven the quart to me.
The huckleberries needed a project. The bear claw is the project. The bear claw is the classic Danish-style yeast pastry shaped like a bear’s claw with the long fingers sliced into the pastry’s edge before the bake, filled with an almond paste or fruit filling, glazed after the bake with a thin sugar drizzle. The huckleberry filling is the kind of filling that needs a substantial pastry around it to balance its concentrated tart-sweet intensity. The bear claw is the substantial-pastry option.
The pastry is laminated dough — yeast-leavened dough with butter folded in across multiple turns to create the layered structure. The process takes most of Saturday. The dough is made and rested Friday night, folded Saturday morning, rested again, folded again, rested again. The shape-cuts and filling happen Saturday afternoon. The final proof is Sunday morning. The bake is Sunday at eight AM. The pastries are eaten Sunday at brunch.
Sunday I baked. The kitchen smelled like yeast and warm butter and the slightly resinous huckleberry filling. The first claw came out of the oven at eight-twenty-five. Dustin ate three at the kitchen counter standing up before he had finished his first coffee. The leftover claws went into a wax-paper-lined tin for the week.
Huckleberry Bear Claws
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 18 min | Total Time: 38 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 2 cups biscuit mix
- 2/3 cup cold buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
- 1 cup fresh or frozen huckleberries
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Make the filling. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine huckleberries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Cook 4–5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the berries soften and the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool 10 minutes.
- Make the dough. Stir biscuit mix and buttermilk together in a bowl just until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a 10x12-inch rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick.
- Fill and shape. Brush dough with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Spoon the cooled huckleberry filling in a 2-inch wide strip along one long edge. Fold the opposite edge over to cover the filling and press the seam to seal. Cut the log crosswise into 8 equal pieces.
- Cut the claws. On each piece, use kitchen scissors or a sharp knife to make 3 shallow cuts along the sealed edge, stopping about halfway through, to create the bear claw shape. Fan the “fingers” slightly apart and place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake. Brush tops with remaining melted butter. Bake 15–18 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack.
- Make the glaze. Whisk powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract until smooth. Drizzle over warm bear claws and serve.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 225 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Carbs: 39g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 390mg