Christmas Kringle is a variation of a recipe that I got from a church friend many years ago in El Paso, Texas. Pam Campbell–originally from Harker’s Island, NC–brought kringle to a church Christmas get-together and when I tasted it, I knew I had to have that recipe. I have only made it once over the years, but decided to make it this year and share the recipe with you. Speaking of sharing, this is so easy to make-and-take. The recipe makes four kringles, so you can keep one and bless three friends with the others.
So you might be wondering where kringles come from. So did I, so I went to Google to find out and got some interesting information.
From “What’s Cooking America” I found this: “Danish Kringles is a Danish-like pastry, filled with fruits, nuts, cheese, etc., then drizzled with icing. Over the years, a variety of fruit and nut fillings were added, and in the United States, not Denmark, the pretzel shape was changed to its present oval shape to eliminate the unfilled, overlapping parts. True kringles are very labor intensive and can take up to three days to prepare, as they are made with up to thirty layers of delicate pastry dough. The challenge for a kringle baker is to roll butter thinly between several layers of yeast-raised dough. According to kringle bakers, you must roll very slowly to make the layers thinner. The traditional Racine [Wisconsin] bakeries offer a flat, oval kringle.”
My Christmas Kringle is not a true Danish kringle, according to the above definition. The way my friend prepared it was so good that I didn’t care. It wasn’t layered, nor was it in a pretzel shape–she made long breadstickshapes–and the shape doesn’t make any difference on the taste. So we could probably call this faux kringle, if we’re being technical. Either way you slice it (see what I did there?) it tastes delicious!
So try some today, or tomorrow. Maybe serve it with something hot.
Christmas Kringle
- December 9, 2021
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- dash of salt
- 2-3 cups all-purpose flour*
- semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels
- 1-2 cups powdered sugar
Directions
- Step 1
- In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs.
- Step 2
- Add the milk, almond extract, salt, baking powder, chocolate chips, and then enough flour to make dough thick, so it doesn’t stick to your finger (like making bread). To test this, wet your finger and then stick it down in the dough. If it doesn’t stick, you’re good.
- Step 3
- Shape dough into four long breadstick shapes–about 2-3 inches in daimeter and the length of a cookie sheet–then fold each into a pretzel.
- Step 4
- Bake at 350° F. for about 20 minutes or until light golden brown
- Step 5
- Cool completely, then make a glaze using about 1-2 cups of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of almond extract, and about 2 tablespoons of milk, to taste and desired consistency. You can add sprinkles, too. I used the clear sprinkles on mine.
