Christmas Kringle Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cut 1 cup butter into flour until crumbly, leaving pea-sized chunks. Stir in sour cream, and mix well; dough will be very sticky. Form dough into a ball. Cover tightly, and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet. Prepare the filling by combining 1 cup butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup chopped walnuts.
• Divide dough into three equal parts; return two parts to the refrigerator to keep cold. Quickly form 1/3 of the dough into a rectangle, and flour lightly. On a heavily floured surface, roll out to approximately 12x17 inches. Position lengthwise on the work surface. Along the long edges of the dough rectangle, use a sharp knife to cut 4 inch long angled lines about 1/2 inch apart. Spoon 1/3 of the filling along the length of the rectangle's uncut center. Alternating from one side of the dough to the other, fold each 1/2 inch wide strip towards the center, crisscrossing the filling in a braid-like fashion. Lightly press together the ends of the strips to seal. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the remaining walnuts. Repeat with remaining ingredients to form 3 braided danishes. Arrange danishes on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool for approximately 30 minutes. While the danishes are cooling, prepare the icing: mix confectioners sugar and water until smooth. Drizzle in fine streams over warm danishes.

Steps:

• For the Topping:
• For the Dough: In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast in the water to soften. Heat the cream to 100 degrees F and add it to the yeast along with the egg yolks and egg white. Whisk to combine.
• In a large bowl, combine the sugar, salt, cardamom, and flour. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is the size of tiny peas. This process also can be done easily in a food processor. Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Do not mix too much because you do not want to soften the cold butter. You should see small flour-coated pieces of butter throughout the dough.
• Overnight rise: Put the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and a tightly woven towel and refrigerate 12 hours or overnight.
• Shape: Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface and divide in half. Roll each half into a 24-inch square. Fold the dough in half from top to bottom, then fold the dough in half from side to side to make a 12-inch square. Cover with a towel and let rest 10 minutes.
• Working with 1 square of dough at a time, roll the dough into a 12 by 24-inch rectangle. Spread half of filling evenly over two-thirds of the dough, filling an area of 8 by 24 inches. Fold the portion of dough that has no filling onto the center third of filled dough, then fold the other third of dough to the center, forming a 4 by 24-inch rectangle.
• Place the dough seam side down on a parchment-lined or well-greased baking sheet. Bring the ends of the dough almost together (about 4 inches apart) to form a horseshoe. Repeat with the second piece of dough. If you cannot get both Kringles on a baking sheet, cover the second one and put it in the refrigerator until the first Kringle finishes baking; then bake.
• Second Rise: Cover the with a tightly woven towel and let rise for 1 hour.
• Preheat Oven: About 10 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Final Preparation: For the topping, beat the egg white with a whisk or fork until frothy and brush over the loaves. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and then granulated sugar.
• Bake and Cool: Bake for 25 minutes until the internal temperature of the bread reached 190 degrees. Immediately remove the bread from the baking sheet and place on a rack to cool.
• In a medium bowl, stir the sugar, apples, pecans, butter, and cinnamon together until well mixed. Use to fill 2 loaves.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, stir together the milk and sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and let stand for 10 minutes to dissolve. Stir in cream.
• In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and cardamom. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or pinching with your fingers until it is a course mealy texture. Stir in the yeast mixture until well blended. Pat into a ball, flatten slightly, then wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
• To make the filling, mix the almond paste, almonds, sugar, cinnamon and almond extract using an electric mixer until evenly blended. It may be crumbly.
• Roll the chilled dough out into a 2 inch wide and 24 inch long rectangle. Spread the filling to within 2 inches of the sides and roll up into a tube. Cover your work surface with sugar, and roll the tube of dough in the sugar to coat thoroughly. Roll and stretch the dough out to form a long rope about 40 inches long. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a pretzel shape.
• Brush the top of the pretzel with egg white and sprinkle with almonds. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the kringle in the preheated oven until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Cut into slices to serve.

Steps:

• Soften butter with a potato masher or something similar. Spread the butter on waxed paper to an 8 by 16-inch rectangle. Chill.
• Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add milk, sugar, salt, lemon extract, and egg and mix well. Add flour and mix smooth by hand. A nice dough should be formed Wrap with plastic wrap and chill.
• Roll the dough on well-floured board to an 8 by 12-inch rectangle. Divide the prepared butter layer into 2 equal parts. Place 1 piece of the butter on 2/3 of the dough. Fold the uncovered third of dough over the middle third (on top 1/2 of the butter layer), then fold the remaining third over the top. Chill.
• Roll dough again to an 8 by 12-inch rectangle. Place the remaining piece of chilled butter on 2/3 of the dough. Fold in the same method as the first piece of butter.
• Gently roll dough to an 8 by 16-inch rectangle being careful not to break the layering of butter. Fold like above in thirds. This make 24 layers of butter. Chill.
• Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. Lightly and patiently roll 1 piece at a time, until piece is about 6 by 20 inches.
• To prepare filling mix ingredient until smooth. Spread center third of dough with butterscotch filling, then add fruit, nuts, raisins or jam. Fold 1 of the long edges to the middle, moisten other edge and fold over top to cover filling. Seal well.
• Put kringle on lightly greased baking sheet and form into oval shape, pressing ends of kringle together to form a continuous oval. Flatten entire oval with hands. Cover kringle for 1 hour at room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown color. Cool, then ice with mixture of powder sugar and water.
• Please note that the best quality kringle require patience. This process is most successful when spread out over three days. Day 1, roll in first piece of butter. Day 2, roll in second piece of butter and additional fold. Day 3, create your kringle or other fine Danish pastries. A quality Danish pastry should be light, tender, flaky, and full of flavor. With patience and pride this recipe will yield just that.

Steps:

• Prepare the dough: In the bowl of a food processor, combine all-purpose flour, bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Pulse a few times to blend. Add butter and pulse 10 times, or until butter chunks are broken down by about half.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and egg. Scrape flour mixture into the bowl and use a flexible spatula to stir together until nearly all the flour is moistened. Use your hand to quickly knead the dough to bring it together. Transfer dough to a work surface, pat into a rectangle, and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled dough into a roughly 8-by-15-inch rectangle. Fold the two short sides of the rectangle toward the center, folding the rectangle into thirds, like a letter. Rotate dough 90 degrees, then roll out again into a 8-by-15-inch rectangle; fold into thirds again. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes.
• Roll the dough out into a roughly 8-by-15-inch rectangle, fold into thirds, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes two more times. At this point, wrapped dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to 3 days, or freezer for 2 months.
• Prepare the filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine almond paste, butter, confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons of the egg whites and the salt. Beat to combine, then beat in lemon juice, adding more to taste, if you like.
• Line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough and cut in half.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll each half into a 6-by-24-inch rectangle. Spread 1/2-cup filling on each in an even strip down the center (about 2 1/2-inches wide).
• Fold one long side over the filling, leaving the remaining third of the dough exposed. Use a pastry brush to the open border of dough with reserved egg whites on both the long side and two short ends. Fold the second long side over the first; pinch and press the seam tightly along the length and at both short ends, sinking your fingertips into the pastry to create a tight seal.
• Remeasure dough to make sure it's at least 24 inches long; if necessary, stretch it back out. Form into an oval, then tuck one end into the other. Pinch and press the seam together, then transfer oval to prepared sheet pans and flip over so it's seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 30 to 45 minutes, or until slightly puffy.
• When ready to bake, heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush pastry with more egg white, then bake until golden, about 25 minutes, rotating sheet pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through.
• As soon as the pastries come out of the oven (and the pastries are piping hot!), do something that seems a little crazy: Compress each pastry slightly by using the sheet pan with the other pastry on it, setting the sheet pan on top of the pastry and pressing gently to eliminate the air pocket between the pastry and filling. Transfer the sheet pans to wire racks and allow pastries to cool completely.
• Prepare the icing: In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, vanilla, fine sea salt and 4 teaspoons water. Spread icing over tops of the kringles. Let icing dry before slicing and serving.