Everyday Apricot and Almond Kringle

An everyday Kringle recipe that is simple enough to make during the weekday but fancy enough for a Christmas Kringle or holiday dessert. Frozen puff pastry is a laminated dough just like Danish dough and is the perfect substitute for the home cook. A food processor makes the filling in under a minute. This is a one hour dessert that looks, smells and tastes authentic and of course, amazing.

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What is Kringle?

Kringle is a traditional Danish pastry first introduced by Roman Catholic monks in the 13th century.  They have evolved from the pretzel type of pastry into a variety of sweet, salty and sometimes fruit and almond filled pastries.

Danish immigrants introduced this pastry in Racine Wisconsin. This highly regarded pastry morphed into a circular shape and is mostly the filled pastry type.

Growing up, my parents would have called this a coffee cake.

Kringle is known by many names in Scandinavia.  The Danes couldn’t keep this magnificent pastry a secret probably due to the  fact they were on major trade routes with the rest of Northern Europe and the remaining Scandinavian countries.

Other names include:

• kringle, kringler (pl) – Denmark, Norway
• kringel, kringlid (pl) – Estonia
• kringla, kringlor (pl) – Sweden
• kringla, kringlur (pl) – Iceland
• rinkeli – Finland
• kringel – Germany

How kringle is made

The kringle is made by starting with a laminated dough, a dough that has been rolled out with a sheet of butter.  This is then folded, rolled, folded, rolled several times.  There is a lot of chilling in between as it is important to keep the butter chilled.  Rolling out the dough warms the butter but it’s important to keep it chilled so in between each series of folding and rolling, it is necessary to chill the dough.  This type of dough is used for making croissants.  It is labor intensive but necessary to get the flakiness desired.  Fortunately, you can find puff pastry sheets in your markets freezer section, which is a laminated dough.  This means you can have laminated dough at home.  

The kringle dough is rolled out into a rectangle shape and usually filled.  It is then rolled, length-wise, and shaped as desired.  If in Denmark, into a pretzel-like shape.  If you are in Racine, Wisconsin, it will be in a circular shape.

The kringle became the state pastry of Wisconsin in 2013, most likely due to the heavy Dane influence from its immigrants.

How the kringle saved vienna from the Turks

At real bakeries, the bakers show up for work at about 2am.  Did you know that?  It still happens today, yup, while you are still dreaming of sugar plum fairies.

Well, in 1529 in Vienna, Austria, it was no different.  While the bakers were busily baking bread, pastries and kringle, they were the first to observe the invading Ottoman Turks.  The bakers alerted the town authorities and helped save Vienna.

The bakers guild in Denmark is the only bakers guild allowed to display the royal crown as a guild trademark.  This is presumably as a token of appreciation for helping save the city of Vienna from the Ottomans.  I don’t know why Viennas bakers guild isn’t allowed to use the royal crown.  Do you know?  Leave a comment, please do share.

Kringle for Christmas

Somewhere along the way, kringle became a Christmas dessert.  I personally think desserts like these have become special occasion only desserts due to our modern economy dictating the need for two incomes to raise a family.  With both parents working with young children at home, who has time or energy to make this labor-intensive traditional dessert?

As a result, I think a lot of traditional Sunday culinary fare became holiday-only treats.  A little sad…

Hopefully this Everyday Kringle will become a regular staple treat for your lovely family.

If you like this super easy dessert recipe, you may also like American Peach Cobbler.  Just mix, dump and bake!

If you make this, let us know how it fares.  Share on Instagram #FusionCraftiness so we can drool over your creation:)

Bon Appetit!

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Everyday Apricot and Almond Kringle

Yield: 12 slices

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

An everyday Kringle recipe that is simple enough to make during the weekday but fancy enough for a Christmas or holiday dessert. Frozen puff pastry is a laminated dough just like Danish dough and is the perfect substitute. A food processor makes the filling in under a minute. This is a one hour dessert that looks, smells and tastes authentic and of course, amazing.

Print

Ingredients

• 1 lb frozen puff pastry sheets
• 1 cup of almond slices plus 3 tbs more for garnish
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup of apricots sliced or chopped, thawed frozen or fresh
• flour for dusting, rolling out pastry
• 1 egg white + 1 Tbs water
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 Tbs water, milk or orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract if using water or milk with your powdered sugar for the icing

Instructions

1. Thaw puff pastry according to directions. This may be done the day before in the fridge or at room temp for several hours.
2. Pre-heat oven to 375.
3. Add next 4 ingredients to a food processor and pulse until it forms a thick paste.
4. Roll out puff pastry on a well floured surface into a rectangle roughly 24 inches long and about 1/8th inch thick.
5. Smear almond paste on pastry as shown and add apricots.
6. Roll the long edge like a jelly roll as shown, pinching the dough at the edge to seal.
7. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
8. Hold your pastry at the ends, lift, stretch a little and slap the middle against the surface while stretching slightly. 2-3 slaps should be good.  Lay on surface, bring ends around the back to form a pretzel-like form and grab hold. Carry to your baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
9. Beat egg white and water and brush on pastry.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes until medium golden brown.  Not too light, not too dark.
11. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes.
12. Make your icing by mixing the powdered sugar, vanilla extract if using, with your liquid until a thick glaze forms.
13. Drizzle your icing and sprinkle with remaining sliced almonds.

Notes

• Although this is an apricot and almond kringle, you may use apples, raisins or pears instead of apricots.
• I have made this without fruit and it was delicious too!
• Puff pastry is a laminated dough just like Danish dough and classic French pastry dough.  This is a great resource for everyday baking.  Making laminated dough is a long but enjoyable process that takes a lot of time.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 511Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 227mgCarbohydrates: 63gFiber: 2gSugar: 33gProtein: 7g

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