Kringle, according to the interwebs, is a Nordic pretzel brought to us by Roman Catholic monks. You can find pretzel-shaped kringles, but apparently the big fat kringle deal is Racine, WI kringle maker, the O&H Danish Bakery. According to these guys, the Olesen family has been making kringles, "a three-day labor intensive process that results in a light, tender and flaky pastry which is truly reminiscent of what you'll find in Denmark," for 60 years. (As a side note, I don't ever remember having kringle when visiting Denmark back in the day, and now feel like I've somehow been cheated.)
Anyhow, with Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to give myself the three days in advance to prepare a Thanksgiving kringle. The challenge was made easier by the fact that the O&H kringle recipe was posted online, so it was just a matter of following the directions in a patient manner. Despite the so-called "labor-intensive" nature of this pastry, it wasn't actually that difficult to make. The dough process is exactly the same as if you were to make any other flaky pastry, like croissants. Never be discouraged by "labor-intensive" recipes... if it's a good recipe, you'll follow the steps and be fine! (And if it's not a good recipe, well... you'll move on.)
Day 1, mix the dough together. This was surprisingly neat and simple -- I dissolved the yeast in a small bowl and sifted flour into it, adding the rest of the ingredients according to the recipe. Probably the only disaster was that my teaspoon of lemon extract ended up being an enthusiastic splash into the mixture while I was measuring it out. At which point I said, "I've spilled at LEAST a teaspoon in, so I'll stop now." The dough came together easily and was soft, pliable, and was emanating a delicious lemon smell. After that
it was just a matter of turning it out on a lightly floured surface, working it slightly, and then wrapping it in plastic to go in the fridge.Butter was softened and spread out onto a sheet. I decided to do this on a piece of wax paper for easy removal. I spread the butter with an icing knife and put that back into the fridge to firm up.
When ev
erything's chilled, roll out the dough into a rectangle. Cut your butter in half and layer it on one side of the dough, then fold the dough into thirds. (Really, I could go into more detail but the recipe is quite easy to follow). The butter is best to get off the wax paper when it's really, really cold. You put it back into the fridge and forget about it.Day 2, do the same thing with the rolling, and the butter, and the folding, then put it back in the fridge and forget about it. Really, I love recipes where you can forget about things.
This is also a good day to have a debate about what kind of filling should fill the kringle. The recipe provided a butterscotch filling; since this is a traditional danish, all sorts of the usual danish fillings can apply: apricot, cherry, nut, chocolate, etc. Mark, ever the lover of a particular gas station apple pie, chose apple. While you can make your own apple filling, I decided to go with a canned version for ease (this year's Thanksgiving theme was relaxation), and picked up a can from the store.
Day 3, roll the dough out and fold it over itself in thirds, again. They say "be careful not to break the layering of butter" but this was not a problem. Just handle it lovingly, which you cannot help to do anyway, because it is a delicious mix of butter and dough. Cut it in half (the recipe makes dough for two kringles) and roll it out into a long rectangle. I laid two lightly floured cutting boards end to end and did it here. I suppose I could have just done it on the counter, but the cutting boards proved useful (as you'll see below).
If you're not sure what this looks like, you can always go to the "About Us" page of the O&H bakery, where you can learn about the Oleson family and see some pictures of their awesome 70's Nordic mustaches by rolling your cursor over their family descriptions. The "Eric & Michael" picture will show you, indeed, Eric and Michael putting filling on the long strips of dough.
Fill the center of your dough with filling. It looks thinner than it should, but don't forget that the sides of the dough need to meet on top, AND close without oozing filling all over your oven. And, in the end, I used up almost the entire can of filling. I also took some kitchen scissors to the apple slices and cut them up into slightly smaller chunks, to make for easier curling into the classic kringle oval. Fold one side over the filling, wet the edge so that the other side can meet and stick, and begin smoothing it all out.
Caaaarefully bring it all together to meet as an oval. This is where cutting apples into smaller
chunks was helpful, as a few big slices near the curves of the oval needed to be removed in order for the kringle's shape to keep (and for the dough to stick together). I tucked one end inside the other to do this. Then I slid it all onto a baking sheet, made the oval a little prettier, flattened it a bit, then covered it and left it alone. Come back to it a while later and put it in the oven according to the recipe.
When we took it out of the oven, the kringle was super puffy, mainly because the filling had cooked and was filling the inside with steam. (When I pushed down on the kringle, I could see little jets of steam escaping from small holes in the dough.) As most baked items do, it shrunk down once it cooled. I slid the kringle off the greasy sheet and onto a clean one, then set it aside to cool.
Let Mark make some plain icing and 'decorate' the kringle, then try hard to forget it's there while you eat the rest of your meal.
So, it was a cause of much excitement when we let out satisfied Thanksgiving burps and said, "Now it's time for kringle." Mark, the true Wisconsinite, cut it into traditional kringle wedges and we had at it. It was lightly lemony, the apple filling was rich, sweet and gooey (next time, maybe we'll add raisins) and, as it happens with most danish, your fingers get nice and sticky from the icing!
There you have it: the kringle challenge of 2009. We'll be taking suggestions for other challenges!
