guest post: in which leanne is tricked into making kringle

Okay, so a few weeks back, I posted a meme from Mayberry Mom about the holidays. LEANNE, a longtime reader and internet friend, posted her responses to the meme in the comments, specifically mentioning a holiday dessert her mom used to make but she’d never made — and that I’d never heard of but sounded yummy: KRINGLE.

Cavalierly, I emailed Leanne and suggested that if she would send me the recipe, we could make it “together” each in our own kitchen thousands of miles apart, and document the experience. Then I read the recipe which involved intimidating things like yeasted dough, and steps that had to be taken over more than one day, and I chickened out; but she followed through — and sent me pictures! I believe that technically, this is Leanne’s first blog post. Perhaps we are witnessing a food blogga in the making? Leanne, what say you?

And now, for your salivatory pleasure, I present The Amazing Kringle Adventure Featuring the Fabulous Leanne…

I’m a mom of 2 (a boy and a girl) who lives in Wisconsin, enjoys baking, and loves to read and write but seems to spend more time reading and writing for others (the children and work, respectively). Also I’m addicted to chocolate. Like the kringle recipe, I got that from my mom

I’ve been wanting to make kringle for a long time, but I was always put off by the recipe. Even my mom would note that it (along with other recipes that she would make and we kids loved) was “putzy.” Over time I’ve decided to embrace “putzy.” I’d like to share these baking traditions with my kids. I’m guessing my mom felt the same way.

The Recipe: Danish Kringle

Day One

Filling
12 oz. dates, pitted and chopped into pieces
2-3 tsp sugar

Place dates into a pot. Add just enough water to cover the dates. Add the sugar. Cook the dates until the water is nearly gone (about 30-45 minutes). Refrigerate the cooked dates overnight.

Dough
4 c. flour
2/3 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. shortening

Combine flour, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening. Set aside.

Scald 1 c. of milk and cool to lukewarm.

Meanwhile, prepare a yeast mixture. In a measuring cup, measure 1 inch of hot water; add 2 packages of dry yeast and 1 tsp. sugar. Add the yeast mixture to the lukewarm milk.

Taking 4 eggs, separate the egg yolks and egg whites (save the egg whites in the fridge for the next day – my mom likes to divide the egg whites into 2 containers as she finds it easier to prep 2 kringle at a time, rather than 4 all at once). Add the egg yolks one at a time to the milk-yeast mixture.

Finally, add the milk-yeast-egg mixture to the flour-salt-sugar-shortening mixture. Chill the dough overnight.

Day Two

The next day divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, about 9 inches by 15 inches.

Whip the egg whites til you get nice white peaks that are fairly stiff. Dab the eggs whites onto the dough, leaving room around the edges. Top with the cooked dates. Sprinkle with a little brown sugar.

Fold the dough into thirds, making the first fold smaller than the second fold. Seal the edges.

Let the dough rise for 2 hours.

Bake for 20-30 minutes at 375.

When the kringle has cooled, frost it. (my mom combines powdered sugar and milk to make her frosting – about that much powdered sugar and easy on the milk so that you don’t add too much and then need to add more powdered sugar. Been there, done that.)

The Execution:

Day One

What was I thinking?

Just start assembling the ingredients, Leanne. That’s not so hard. You can do this.

This will be like making cinnamon rolls.

But cinnamon rolls don’t take TWO DAYS.

This is crazy. Also, I’m hungry. I need a snack. Yes, I need a snack before I get started. Oh, and I’m supposed to be taking pictures to document this experiment

    

I’m not procrastinating. I’m documenting. And snacking.

So making the filling (at least the date part) wasn’t so bad. Dates, water, sugar. Cook. I can do that.

   

And even making the dough wasn’t so hard. Except for the glitch. The recipe calls for 1 cup of shortening. I had half a cup (why, oh, why didn’t I check before I started? It’s a nasty habit of mine – I have ingredient “X” so surely there is enough). So I substituted some butter. Please let that be okay.

    

I put everything into the fridge to wait for Day Two.

Day Two

Today is the day when I find out if this really was a crazy idea. Though I’m pretty sure I know the answer. Yes.

I pull out the dough and it’s quite sticky. Maybe too sticky. I work in some flour as I prepare to roll it out. I manage to roll out the 4 rectangles, but all the while thinking something isn’t quite right with the dough.

But it’s time to whip the egg whites. I have never whipped egg whites in my life. Ever. I just start giggling nervously as I turn on the mixer. I whip and whip and pretty soon they look good enough to me. They seem stiff.

I’m supposed to “dot” the egg whites on to the dough, but smearing seems like so much more fun. So I smear. And giggle some more. I do “dot” the date mixture – smearing the dates only further smears the egg whites and not in a good way. More giggles. It looks a bit goofy on the dough, but I just keep going.

     

Now I must fold the dough.

The dough is stuck. Too sticky stuck.

I try to massage the dough up with some flour. It sort of works, but by now I’m laughing hysterically. The dough is tearing. It doesn’t look pretty. I somehow manage to fold the dough into kringle-like form. But I must still get the forms onto the cookie sheet. The forms that are still pretty well stuck onto the table. I am so glad that no one is home to see what I have done.

After much more flour and laughing, the forms get transferred to the sheet where they will rest and then bake. I think I should have used two sheets instead as they are awfully cozy on the one sheet.

After two hours of resting and rising, they are beginning to become one kringle.

I bake the 4-in-1 kringle.

It smells heavenly, reminding me of when my mom used to make kringle.

Once the kringle is out of the oven and has cooled some, I frost it while my 5 year-old son, who is now home from school, hovers. He can’t wait to have a piece for snack. Though I do warn him that I will try it first to see if it tastes okay.

And it tastes pretty good. Not quite like mom’s (it’s the dough that seems most off), but not bad for my first attempt. Though I learn it tastes even better when it’s completely cooled. My son asks for more and I feel pleased.

The first kringle is nearly gone, and three more wait in the freezer. When they are gone, I’ll try again.