'Kringle' -Scandinavian Pastry

'What is kringle?' you might ask...  it is a DELICIOUS danish pastry! It looks tricky and impressive, but you will see how simple it is to make. It is perfect for a brunch, a tea, entertaining guests for breakfast- or even for dessert!


This is another recipe from Becky Dean. While Becky was teaching me how to make her family's oatmeal bread, we flipped through some other recipes in her book. To my surprise, I saw a slew of Norwegian and Scandinavian recipes! Peter is Norwegian, and his mom has shared several traditional Norwegian dishes with me. Needless to say, I was so excited to see more scandinavian recipes- some already familiar and some new! I mentioned in the oatmeal bread blog post that Becky was raised in Bolivia; well, her upbringing may have been in South America but her blood is definitely Norwegian! While our oatmeal bread was rising, Becky taught me how to whip up this quick and scrumptious 'kringle' pastry.


Recipe (makes 2 large pastries, serves about 12):


Crust:
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Butter
1 Tablespoon Water


Pastry Top:
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Flour
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract


Frosting:
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter, softened
a dash of milk
*optional: dash of almond extract or vanilla extract

Cut together the flour, butter, and water together to make the crust:

Then divide the crust dough into 2 equal portions. Mold each half of the dough into a long strip onto a cookie sheet. Then press and spread until it is thin and looks like Becky's below: 

Set these to the side, while you make the next part...

Then, combine 1 cup of water and 1/2 butter in a saucepan over medium high heat:

 When it comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1 cup of flour:

 Suddenly it will transform into a super silky smooth playdough!

Then stir in 3 eggs, one at a time:

 After the addition of each egg, it becomes a super weird consistency and it seems impossible to combine, but...

 ...after a particular stir, it suddenly becomes smooth and combined again:

After each egg has been stirred in, mix in 1/2 tsp almond extract. 

Spread this pastry dough over the uncooked crust dough so that you have 2 layers of dough (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that part)

Bake the layered doughs for 45 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  

They come out super puffy... 

 ...but let them sit for a few minutes to relax and fall down, and leave behind a beautifully rustic-textured top:

While the pastry is sitting, mix the icing. Spread all over the tops when the pastries are done relaxing:

We just cut pieces right out of these pastries and enjoyed them right away!

Best when fresh out of the oven!!!!!