Seedy pleasures

Kupel's bear claws

by Suzanne Kammlott

noshing & sipping

Goya cola champagne, September 14 Talk o' Texas okra pickles, September 7 Bertucci's unlimited salad, August 31 Yerba maté, August 24

I told a friend I was off to buy a poppy-seed bear claw from Kupel's Bakery, and I was met with the same enthusiasm I felt when I first discovered these extraordinary sweets. "They're incredible!" he exclaimed. "Normally, you get a few stingy seeds -- these are stuffed!" It's true. Although Kupel's boasts plenty of larger-than-average pastries and cookies, the poppy-seed bear claw ($1.50) is in a category of its own. This claw lives up to its name in size and weight. It's made of flaky, sugar-crusted strudel dough clenching a heaping mound of rich, black, bittersweet poppy-seed filling that squishes out the edges in hunky, delicious crumbles. One piece of advice: just remember to floss.

Kupel's is located at 421 Harvard Street in Brookline; call (617) 566-9528.

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