May 27, 2010

Danish Kringle (recipe)

I originally made this recipe for a 2007 edition of “Weekend Breakfast Blogging: Ethnic Dishes With A Twist”. Since then it has generated quite a bit of traffic, especially from Chowhound, something that -really- makes me smile 🙂 In the original challenge the host wanted us to make a dish from a culture, country, or ethnicity other than our own. Well wow, that really left me in a bit of a tizzy 🙂 I wasn’t (at the time) familiar with that many breakfast dishes, and those that I did know invariably came from my own cultural/ethnic/national mixes. Nothing I found peaked my interest until I pulled out a vintage cookbook that I used to look through a lot as a child but have never seen my mother use. She says it was a gift but nothing in it ever appealed to her. Was she insane? Just look at that cover 😀 If this couldn’t give me the answer, nothing could.

I was not disappointed. The chapter “Breads from Abroad” opened with a stunning photo and recipe for a Danish Kringle. I knew that this would be my contribution immediately! I loved everything about the recipe. The name, the photo, the ingredients, the description.

From Better Homes and Gardens’ Meals with a Foreign Flair:

Flaky butter-rich layers fold around sweet’-n-spicy raisin filling; crisp almonds toast atop!

And flaky it was indeed. Just look at it falling apart as I chowed down 😆

If you’ve been turned off by cloyingly sweet supermarket danishes, you’ll definitely appreciate the subtleness that the icing sugar filling contributes to the dough. Definitely a 5 star recipe. Very similar to the croissants which I made earlier this year (and am yet to post d’oh!) but much less labour intensive 😀 I don’t know how many Danish readers I have but I hope I did your bread some justice 🙂

From Wikipedia:

Kringle is a pastry developed in Scandinavia.

In Danish and Norwegian the word is kringle, plural kringler; Swedish: kringla, plural kringlor; Icelandic: kringla, plural kringlur; Finnish: rinkeli. The word origins from Old Norse kringla, meaning ring or circle.

In Scandinavia kringle denotes the pretzel-like knotted shape rather than the pastry type. Kringles may be made from puff paste (like Danish pastry) or yeast dough, filled with remonce or marzipan and raisins, sprinkled with coarse sugar, nut flakes or iced. Small saltkringler also exist, being the Danish word for pretzels. Kommenskringler are half-hand-sized breads in kringle shape, made from unsweetened yeast dough with caraway seeds. Sukkerkringler are similar, but sprinkled with sugar instead of caraway. Kringles are still popular items in modern Danish bakeries. The kringle symbol is one of the few ancient guild signs still being used and a golden kringle sign is often hung outside bakeries.

Danish Kringle (recipe)
Recipe from: Better Homes and Gardens’ Meals with a Foreign Flair
Makes 2 Kringles

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:

3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Raisin Filling:

Add 1 teaspoon ground cardamom to 1/4 cup soft butter; gradually stir in 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar. Blend in 2 tablespoons cream; add 1 cup light seedless raisins and mix.

Almond Topper:

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup halved almonds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream butter with 1/4 cup flour
2. Roll between sheets of waxed paper to 10 x 4 inch rectangle. Chill.
3. Soften yeast in 1/4 cup warm water
4. Mix egg, milk, sugar, salt, yeast; stir in flour for soft dough
5. On floured surface, roll to 12-inch square; place chilled butter in center; overlap sides of dough atop butter.
6. Turn dough 1/4 way around; roll to 12-inch square

7. Repeat folding and rolling twice more.
8. Wrap in waxed paper.
9. Chill 30 minutes
10. Roll to 24×12 inch rectangle.
11. Cut lengthwise into 2 strips
12. Spread each with Raisin Filling and roll as for jelly roll, starting with long side.
13. Moisten edges; seal
14. Stretch each to 30-inch length without breaking

15. Place seam sides down on greased baking sheet shaping as shown
16. Flatten to 1/2 inch with rolling pin
17. Brush Kringles with beaten egg; sprinkle with Almond Topper
18. Cover, let rise til double, 25 minutes