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Danish and bear claws use the same dough, and both are among my favorite pastries — I’ve always loved European-style pastries. So satisfyingly yummy, and great alongside a cup of morning chai for breakfast.
You can imagine my joy and excitement when I finally cracked the code for making them easily at home. I make this recipe at least once a month, usually doubling the batch — one half for Danish, the other for bear claws.
Tips for making Danish and Bear Claws at home
- Use European-style butter. Kerrygold is now my go-to for baking.
- When making the dough initially, aim for something very sticky and soft.
- Use jam or candied fruit for the Danish topping. For bear claws, avoid wet fillings.
For the Danish, I’ve found that homemade candied peach paired with sliced almonds works beautifully as a topping.
For bear claws, remember: no wet fillings, as they make the dough hard to roll. The filling needs to be semi-dry. Homemade dark chocolate works great — I add it in chunks, and it melts during baking. When I don’t have dark chocolate on hand, I use prunes instead; they soften nicely in the oven too, with a tart, semi-sweet flavor.
Homemade Danish and Bear Claw Pastry Recipe
Danish and bear claws use the same dough, and both are satisfyingly yummy, and great alongside a cup of morning chai. I make this recipe at least once a month, usually doubling the batch — one half for Danish, the other for bear claws.
Ingredients
For the pastry dough:
- 330 g all purpose flour, organic unbleached preferred
- 2 eggs
- 120 g - 140 g milk
- 25 g sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 100 g butter, unsalted, European style such as Kerrygold
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
For topping:
- 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk - the liquid for brushing the pastries
- Jam or candied fruit, for Danish topping
- Homemade dark chocolate chunks or chopped prune, for bear claw filling
- 1 cup of sliced almond, for topping
Instructions
- Add eggs, most of the milk and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Mix to combine. I usually use the stand mixer.
- Add flour, salt and instant yeast to the mixing bowl. Use a silicone spatula to fold into the liquid mixture until evenly combine. The dough should be sticky, but not overly watery. Add the last bit of milk slowly until you achieve the desired texture. Rest the dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
- Prepare the butter block. Take the butter from the refrigerator, cut into small cubes. Lay unbleached parchment paper flat, place the butter cubes onto the parchment paper, cover the butter with another piece of parchment paper, organize and press the butter into a rectangle. Approximately 12cmx17cm. This is approximate, as long as your dough can fold over and cover the butter block completely, that's good enough.
- Sprinkle generous flour and knead the dough into a double sized rectangle. Place the butter block in one end, fold the dough over and pinch to encase the butter completely.
- Using hands to gently press down the dough, then knead along the length to double the length, fold 1/3 toward the center, like a letter, press down. Place it flat in a glassware and rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Repeat the above process twice.
- Danish and Bear Claws need the dough to be knead out very thin. I found it is easy to tackle one small piece of dough at a time. I usually cut the dough into 4 equal parts. Then roll out each part paper thin into very tall (long) rectangle. The lengths is about 3x the width.
- For Danish - cut into 3 equal parts horizontally, approximately in squares. Fold each square corner toward the center and place on a large baking pan lined with parchment paper. Keep spaces between them as they expand during the proofing and baking process.
- For Bear Claws, lay either homemade dark chocolate chunks or prune pieces along the vertical center line. Roll the vertical edge toward the center and overlapping each other. Gently press down into a flattened log, cut the log into 3 equal parts.
- For each part, cut on edge half way and then bend into crescent shape. Place on a large baking pan lined with parchment paper
- Place the pans in the enclosed area such as the oven and let it proof, about 2 hours until it doubles the size and looks fluffy.
- Turn on the oven to "bake" "425 F"
- While waiting, brush the egg liquid on top the Danish, add fruit jam/candied fruit in the center, and generously garnish with almond slices.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or till the top of the Danish is golden browned.
- Remove the Danish from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Brush the egg liquid all over of Bear Claws and generously garnish with almond slices.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or till th4e top is golden browned.
