Bear Claw Hunt #4: Beckmann's Bakery and the Farmers' Market

Beckmann's Bakery - visited August 12, 2017

The 4^th recommendation from my Next Door post asking where I can find bear claws was for Beckmann’s Bakery. Someone mentioned they have a booth at the farmers’ market which was enough for me to go searching for the closest one where they might be. Fortunately, there was one only several miles from me and even more fortunately, that particular farmers’ market operated on Saturdays rather than Sundays. It’s more difficult for me to go on Sundays since I have church in the morning and by the time I can get to a farmers market in the afternoon, a lot of the good stuff is gone.

I’m a believer in supporting farmers’ markets whenever possible. They’re typically made up of small business owners, the produce is often far superior to what you can get at the large chain grocery stores and I’d rather my consumer dollars stay in my local community as much as possible. One of my friends once commented how expensive things are at her local farmers’ market and the prices put them out of her budget. Everyone’s circumstances are different and how we choose to spend our dollars is up to each individual; no judgment here. I feel fortunate that I’m only buying for me so I have the luxury of buying in small enough quantities that I can pay a little more for quality produce without breaking the bank. And, let’s be honest, I’m not enough of a veggie eater to really go crazy with all that fresh produce.

My local farmers’ market was close enough at just over 3 miles away that I set off on foot early on a Saturday morning to make the trek. I like getting to farmers’ markets right when they open so you can pick and choose from their best offerings. Walking there also guaranteed I wouldn’t go wild since I could only buy enough that would fit into my backpack and I could schlep it home, pack-mule style. The farmers’ market opened at 9 am and I arrived there a few minutes after it opened.

Most of the vendors were already set up and there weren’t too many people there yet. Other than the bear claw, I didn’t have a pre-set list of what I was going to buy. I had been hoping to buy Japanese sweet potatoes since they’re almost in season and I was still focused on using my new spiralizer but the vendors I talked to who were selling potatoes didn’t have any.

But in poking around at the various stalls, I did score ears of fresh corn (I boiled them later and they were amazing, so much better than the almost tasteless ones I last bought at the grocery store), raw peanuts for boiling (I love me some boiled peanuts), cilantro (needed for a recipe, stay tuned for future post), an onion and a bunch of green onions. Plus a few pounds of the sweetest green grapes I’ve eaten in months.

But my go-to purchase at any farmers’ market is always kettle corn. I know, I should be going there for the freshest produce ever but c’mon, it’s kettle corn. The life-changing product that made me permanently give up caramel corn as being too sweet and had me switching my movie-watching allegiance to the theater chains that served it (Century) instead of just regular popcorn (AMC). Yes, I decide where I’m going to watch a movie based on, not the movie showtimes, not the location, but which theater sells kettle corn.

It was still early and not many people (or none of them) were lined up at the stall for a 9 am kettle corn fix. The kettle corn guy was just getting started with popping the kernels and mixing that sweet-salty combination I love but they did have enough made for a small bag which his tween-aged son handed me when I came around. Younger children were playing nearby to amuse themselves while their dad and big brother worked the stand (love that family aspect of farmers’ markets). The bag was still warm from the kernels but I managed to resist diving in then and there. Don’t ask me how.

I was enjoying checking out all the different stalls that I almost forgot that I came for a bear claw. Almost but not quite. I found the Beckmann’s Bakery stall easily since it was well stocked with baked goods near one end of the market. The big banner proclaiming their name was also pretty pointed. There was a tempting array of bread loaves and other pastries laid out on the tables. I had to remind myself I only had a backpack that I had to truck more than 3 miles home strapped to my back and it was already full of ears of corn, peanuts, grapes, an onion, cilantro, green onions and kettle corn. Good thing I couldn’t find Japanese sweet potatoes after all or I might not have been able to fit everything in.

I perused all the baked goods on offer but the closest things I saw that might’ve been bear claws didn’t quite look like bear claws so I had to ask the guy if that’s what they were. He confirmed so I bought one. If you look at the picture, you might see why I was confused. It looks like a bear claw pressed back to back. Or as my coworker Eileen later called it when I showed her the pictures, it was “a hoof instead of a claw”. The top was so covered in sliced almonds and powdered sugar that I had to turn it over to confirm the cutouts that marked the “claws”.

BUT, I will give Beckmann’s major points that it really was a honest-to-goodness bear claw of my expectations. Meaning brioche dough, meaning almond paste filling, not brown sugar filling – eureka, I finally found a real bear claw. In terms of flavor, the pastry itself wasn’t as flaky as the one from Copenhagen Crown Bakery and I would’ve preferred glaze instead of the messiness of powdered sugar (there is no eating anything covered in powdered sugar with any semblance of neatness) but overall it was a good bear claw. I’m not a big fan of almond paste which is why bear claws are not my pastry of choice. But still, I was just happy to find a “real” bear claw. Kudos to Beckmann’s Bakery for sticking to the traditional rendition of a bear claw, albeit in hoof form than claw form. 4^th attempt was the charm.

Bear Claw Hunt #3 - Maple Leaf Donuts

Bear Claw Hunt #3 - Maple Leaf Donuts, visited August 1 & 2, 2017

I was now going for the third recommendation on my Next Door post. A couple of people spoke warmly of the bear claws at Maple Leaf Donuts. I’d never thought of trying a doughnut shop for anything other than doughnuts and possibly cinnamon rolls (Stan’s Donuts remains my favorite for both) but after three strikes on finding a genuine bear claw, I was more than willing to be open-minded about any possibilities.

Unfortunately, Maple Leaf was not as conveniently situated on my commute as Black Bear Diner had been. In fact, it was in the opposite direction from work. On the morning I had my biweekly 7 am meeting, I left my house at 6 to appear at Maple Leaf (fortunately they opened at 4 or 5 am, sign of a true “fresh doughnuts every morning” sort of place) in plenty of time to secure the bear claws and make it to my meeting on time.

Except when I got there, I saw the sign for “apple fritters and bear claws”, I saw the apple fritters but not a crumb of bear claw. I asked the counter lady if she had any. She said she normally had them every day but she was sold out that morning because someone had come in and bought all the bear claws. You’re kidding me. 6:10 am and “sold out”. Gah, it was a conspiracy, I tell you, to keep me from finding a genuine bear claw.

However, since I was already there, I figured I might as well not waste the trip so I bought an apple fritter. Had to inject some fat and sugar into my day if I had to be coherent for a 7 am meeting. And I had been thwarted in my bear claw hunt so I needed some kind of consolation prize. I like apple fritters but rarely eat them. For me, the calories aren’t usually worth eating them on a regular basis and my sweet tooth doesn’t normally kick in until later in the day. But once in awhile is okay, especially when I’m trying out a new place.

Apple Fritter

The apple fritter was quite good. Could’ve used a few more apples but overall, thumbs up. The outside was crisp and had just the right amount of light glaze to give it a crisp but melting texture. The fritter itself was also delicious, although there were a few bites I could taste the deep fried-ness of it and by the end, I was reminded why apple fritters are just a sometimes food. I don’t think I needed the sugar high quite that early in my day, especially since I hadn’t run that morning. 

Fortunately though, I did go for a run after work that day. Which meant I didn’t need to run the following morning and I worked off some of that apple fritter so it strengthened my resolve to try Maple Leaf again. At this point, my escalation of commitment was rising with every thwarted attempt to find a “real bear claw”. The next morning, I worked out at home, got ready and had just enough time to make another detour to Maple Leaf before getting into work at my usual time.

This time, there were bear claws available. But their appearance gave me pause. Just from looks alone, I could already tell this wasn’t a “real” bear claw. Despite having the “claw” appearance, it was obvious this was made out of doughnut dough, not brioche dough. I could also see apple bits peeking through the “claws” and even without the apples, the filling was darker than almond paste so I figured it was another brown sugar-cinnamon filling. Did someone change the definition of bear claws when I wasn’t looking? When did they stop having almond paste filling and switch over to brown sugar paste? Never, that’s when because these are not genuine bear claws.

I got one for me and one for Eileen but I lowered her expectations when I got to the office. It wasn’t a bear claw. It was an apple-filled doughnut with some weird cutouts that reminded me of bear knuckles perhaps but not bear claws. It was a good apple-filled doughnut but an apple-filled doughnut nonetheless. Who knew finding a genuine bear claw would be so hard? 

Bear Claw Hunt #2 - Black Bear Diner

Bear Claw Hunt #2 - Black Bear Diner, visited July 25, 2017

One of my Next Door neighbors also mentioned Black Bear Diner as a potential source for bear claws. Black Bear isn’t a bakery per se (the “Diner” in the name should be a tip off) but they do have a display of baked goods near the cashier. Another person had commented on my bear claw thread that Black Bear’s bear claws were “expensive and tasteless” while another said they were “huge”.  I decided to see for myself.

In a fortuitous set of circumstances, it turns out there’s a Black Bear Diner literally on my way to work. That’s the advantage of recommendations from Next Door; they really will tell you what’s in your neighborhood. So it was no problem at all, on one of my non-gym-running mornings, to make a brief stop to secure a bear claw. They were considerably more than the $2.50 bear claw at Copenhagen and clocked in at $5.99. So I didn’t buy 6 this time and instead settled for one. Given the negative review on them, I decided I should try them out for myself first rather than offering one to Eileen, untested. If it was delicious, I could get another one the next morning and declare the bear claw hunt at an end.

But alas, it wasn’t to be. The bear claw was indeed huge. They were indeed expensive. And yes, they were also indeed tasteless. By that I mean, the pastry itself was not of the flaky, airy quality of a Copenhagen bakery. It didn’t even begin to approach a croissant’s flakiness. Maybe more on par with an Entemann’s strudel dough. It was heavy and dense in texture. The claws were also not quite claw-like and instead made the whole thing look more like a crown than a mockery of a bear claw. 

What really killed it for me though was the filling. This one actually had filling so points for that. But demerits that the filling was a brown sugar-cinnamon filling and not an almond paste filling. Yes, it had the sliced almonds on top and the royal icing glaze. But no almond paste? It isn’t like I’m even a fan of almond paste but to me, that’s part of what makes a bear claw a bear claw. So no bueno on this “bear claw” either. 

Bear Claw Hunt #1 - Copenhagen Crown Bakery

Bear Claw Hunt #1 - Copenhagen Crown Bakery, visited July 18, 2017

Technically, this is my second attempt to find my coworker Eileen a bear claw. Hannah’s Café was my first unsuccessful foray. But since then, I’ve made a more concerted effort to find it so I’m going to start numbering my attempts to track down an honest-to-goodness bear claw. Until Eileen pointed out how hard they were to find, I confess I’d never paid much attention to them. I like them well enough but they’re not my pastry of choice; that would be a pain au chocolat if I wanted to forego a protein breakfast and hang the calories.

A true bear claw is made from enriched dough like a brioche dough, is filled with almond paste, one long end is cut into the “claws” (Eileen insists that’s what makes them genuine bear claws), the top is garnished with sliced almonds to signal the almond paste filling and usually, though not always, drizzled with vanilla icing. I make a point of laying this out so you know what I’m looking for and why I consider my hunting attempts to be failures so far.

No longer trusting yelp reviews since that’s what led me astray to Hannah’s Café, this time I crowd sourced recommendations for bear claws from my neighborhood on Next Door. I easily got 5 recommendations and went with the one that got the most accolades: Copenhagen Crown Bakery.

I’ve been there before and written up the visit but at the time, I was involved with the burnt almond cake and had not paid much attention to the pastries. I had a 7 am meeting one morning but fortunately Copenhagen opened at 6 am so I was able to go before work and secure half a dozen: 1 for me to try and the rest for Eileen. They looked scrumptious and worthy of the recommendations from Next Door. They were also reasonably priced at $2.50 each and a perfect size, not too big but not too small either.

The pastry was flaky with just the right amount of buttery goodness tempered with the sweetness from the caramelized almonds. It was delicious. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any filling. At first I was puzzled. Did I just happen to get a bear claw that the bakery missed filling and baked “empty”? But in checking with Eileen and the box of 5 I had left her, it turns out they were all empty. So the lack of filling was deliberate. Ack. That didn’t make the pastry less delicious but, in my eyes, that disqualified it as a bear claw. Yes, the claws were there, yes the dough was the right dough, yes it had the almond topping. But a genuine bear claw pastry has almond paste filling and this didn’t. So the hunt continues.

Coconut Cream Bread Pudding

Coconut Cream Bread Pudding - made August 5, 2017, modified from Tornadough Alli

I haven’t made bread pudding in awhile. For some reason, I tend to think of it as a winter dessert and it’s been hotter than Satan’s armpit this summer. But truthfully, bread pudding is a year-round dessert since bread, milk and eggs, the basic ingredients for bread pudding, are not seasonal. It does tend to be a heavy dessert though and most people prefer lighter, cooler desserts for summer (ice cream, mousse, fruity desserts, etc).

Pre-bake

In the interests of bucking that trend, I indulged in getting a loaf of my favorite challah from Trader Joe’s to try out this bread pudding recipe. I had high hopes since I like coconut and, again on a kick to clear out some ingredients from my pantry, I had a lone can of coconut milk waiting to be used.

Post-bake

All the recipes for bread pudding recommend using stale bread. I never hang onto bread long enough for it to stale since I don’t want to risk mold. But it’s easy to “manually” stale your bread by cutting it into cubes and then baking it as a low temperature in the oven for about 10 minutes, just long enough to dry out the bread but not so long that you turn them into croutons. Drying them out is important so that, ironically, the bread can better absorb the liquid custard mixture. I don’t know whether to describe that as ironic or self-defeating. Dry out the air and water, re-liquefy with milk-and-egg custard. It’s all good.

I changed the directions to let the custard absorb for a few hours rather than ten minutes that the original directions had said. I also only kept the foil on top for 30 minutes then took it off to let the top brown and rise for the last 30-40 minutes of baking.

I have mixed feelings about this bread pudding. I love coconut and I thought this would be a rich, flavorful bread pudding with the coconut milk. The texture was right in that it was like French toast on steroids, like any good bread pudding. But it lacked flavor and sweetness. The lack of sweetness wasn’t a surprise since there’s no added sugar in the custard. I would recommend adding up to ¼ cup of granulated sugar to the milk and egg mixture before pouring over the bread cubes. I thought the coconut would add enough sweetness to make up for the lack of sugar but it wasn’t.

Adding the glaze also helps to incorporate a little more sweetness. I tried the taste test bite without the glaze but that’s what made me decide to add the glaze. 

One 1-lb loaf challah, stale and cubed into 1-inch cubes

1 15-ounce can coconut milk, divided
1 1/2 cups milk
5 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups shredded or flaked coconut

Glaze
2 cups confectioner's sugar
remaining coconut milk

1. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups coconut milk, whole milk, eggs, cinnamon and 1/2 cup coconut; stir until combined.
2. In a 2-quart casserole dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, spread a layer of bread cubes, top with 1/3 cup coconut and ladle just enough custard liquid to cover the bread. Repeat with remaining bread cubes and coconut. Ladle custard liquid over each layer, pouring all of the remaining liquid over the top. Cover and chill for at least an hour to let the liquid absorb fully into the bread cubes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover casserole dish with foil and bake for approximately 1 hour or until set and toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove foil and let bread pudding brown if not yet golden.
4. To make glaze, mix the remainder of the coconut milk with confectioners' sugar and drizzle over top of bread pudding.

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Wishes and Dishes - Levain Bakery copycat

Levain Bakery copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough July 30, 2017 from Wishes and Dishes

I go through periods of clearing out the baking shelves in my pantry. Which means, I try to use up the ingredients I have without buying more so I can actually empty the shelves once in awhile. It’s a good practice so your ingredients are rotated through and used up properly and nothing’s allowed to go past its expiration date. For me, even though I bake quite often, it’s harder than it sounds because I’m a baking ingredient hoarder. I hate to run out of anything because you never know when the baking gods will smite me and propel me into the kitchen to bake something. In that mood, I don’t want to be out of anything.

What I tend to have a good amount of is – no surprise – chocolate. In multiple forms. I have unsweetened chocolate (big bag of Scharffenberger baking squares), semisweet chocolate chips (Costco-sized Tollhouse morsels), multiple packs of milk chocolate chips (Ghirardelli, Guittard, Nestle), bittersweet chocolate bars (Valrhona and Lindt), cocoa powder (my beloved Pernigotti) and a slab of Trader Joe’s Pound Plus milk chocolate. The latter is what I wanted to use up for this recipe.

Since I don’t believe in small or bite-sized chocolate chip cookies (who does??), I planned on making behemoth cookies (think 1/3 cup measure per cookie) so it seemed suitable to cut up the milk chocolate slab into chunks and use it for this recipe. Big chunks to go with big cookies, I say.

This is another Levain Bakery copycat but I have to admit mine didn’t come out like the original blog’s or like Levain’s. For one thing, mine spread too much. They still stayed thick but they were not mounded-chubby thick. I’m not sure why unless my butter got too warm as I was a trifle late in mixing it and the dough was a bit soft. So even though I froze the dough and baked from frozen dough, these still spread. They also, to my sorrow, were too sweet. I don’t say that often and I don’t know if my taste buds were off but rest assured, I tried two different cookies on two different baking days and the results were the same: sweeeeeeet. Which is a little odd because the recipe ingredients were not out of whack with other copycats and other chocolate chip cookies in general. I didn’t miscount the amount of sugar I added either. So it could be my taste buds had had enough sugar for the moment (you don’t know how much that thought fills me with horror. And denial).

However, I baked the rest of the cookies off for friends I met for dinner one night and distributed them via treat bags for them and their families and they loved them. I either have really polite, well-manned friends (totally possible) or it was just me (also possible). In either case, if I make this recipe again, I would probably go with semisweet or dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate to balance some of the sweetness.

1 cup cold butter

1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (or can substitute 1/4 cup granulated sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips or chunks

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until just combined after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
3. Stir in flours, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips or chunks.
4. Portion into large dough balls and flatten slightly into thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough discs, giving them room to spread. 
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes until set. Remove to wire racks until cooled completely.

Fried Cornbread

Fried Cornbread - made July 30, 2017 from The Southern Lady Cooks

After my hoecake experiment, I went a little more boldly into “southern cooking” with this recipe for fried cornbread. Actually, maybe not so boldly because I did modify the recipe slightly. I don’t have good luck with southern recipes. That’s not just my assessment but I’ve been told flat out from people from the South that I don’t really know true Southern cooking or baking. Harsh (and sometimes delivered rudely) but fair enough since I’m not from the South and wasn’t raised there but still I try. And I’m always willing to learn.

This recipe is from a blog called The Southern Lady Cooks so I’m trusting in the name and the recipe. The part I didn’t go bold on is I couldn’t bring myself to use all that oil as called for in the recipe. It essentially calls for deep frying the cornbread. I still wanted to use my griddle rather than a high-sided frying pan so I didn’t use all that oil but did generously grease the griddle with oil. Okay, I know, it’s not the same thing but that was a lot of oil.

Straying from the directions and not going all-in probably disqualifies me from true Southern cooking once and for all. The fried cornbread actually did taste like cornbread but I think I fried it too long and it seemed dry. And heavy. The batter was really thick. It also didn’t have as much flavor as I had hoped but it seemed really salty. Maybe my non-Southern taste buds veer more towards my sweet tooth than people from the South. Or I’m just not a cornbread person, fried or baked. Oh well, I tried.

1 1/2 cup self-rising cornmeal

2/3 cups buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup oil for cooking

1. Mix together cornmeal, buttermilk, egg and salt. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Brown on one side then turn and fry until golden brown on both sides. Serve warm with butter.