Danish Kringle

I love these and my local bakery closed down leaving me with no good sources.

Hours and hours scouring for an authentic recipe led me to Beatrice Ojakangas.  She had shared the recipe with Julia Child, and has authored a book containing the recipe.

Here is her recipe from her website http://beatrice-ojakangas.com/2010/03/much-requested-danish-pastry-recipe/, along with my results.

Basic Danish Pastry (Quick Method)

1/4 cup warm water, 105*F. to 115*F.

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 cup milk, at room temperature

1 egg, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter

Pour water into bowl; add yeast and let stand for 2-3 minutes until yeast foams. Add milk, egg, sugar and salt and whisk to mix; set aside.

Measure flour into food processor with metal blade in place. Cut butter into 1/4 inch thick slices and drop into flour. Pulse 8 to 10 times, until butter is cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Empty flour mixture into bowl with yeast and with rubber spatula, gently fold the two mixtures together just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Don’t be too energetic! The butter must remain in pieces so that you will produce a flaky pastry, not a bread dough or cookie. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or up to 4 days to suit your schedule).

Lightly flour a work surface; turn dough out onto it, and dust dough with flour. Using the palms of your hands, pat dough into a rough square. Roll out to 16 inches on a side. Fold dough into thirds, like a business letter and turn it so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Roll out again, into a long narrow rectangle, about 10 inches wide by 24 inches long. Fold into thirds again. Roll out to make a 20-inch square. Fold square into thirds again to make a long, narrow rectangle. Then again, fold into thirds to make a square. (If at any point in this procedure the dough gets very soft, cover and chill it for 30 minutes or so.) Cover and chill the dough before final shaping. You can store the dough in the refrigerator for 4 days or wrap it air tight and keep it frozen for 1 month; thaw overnight, still wrapped, in the refrigerator.

Butter Cream Filling

1/4 cup soft butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup finely pulverized almonds

1 (3-ounce) package almond paste(optional)

1 egg white

Pulverize sliced almonds in food processor until fine.  Add butter, extract, sugar, paste and process.  Add egg white last.

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2Tbsp warm water

1/2tsp almond extract

Assembly

Gather sugar, icing, filling, dough, almonds and 1 egg.

Roll out dough so that it is approx. 36” long by about 4” wide.  Scoop butter cream filling down the centre, roll up.

Form the kringle into whatever shape you wish, I used a pretzel shape.  Glaze kringle with egg and apply sugar on top.  Add almonds on top and proof for 45-60 minutes.

Bake @ 375 for 30-35 minutes.

Remove, apply icing, and cool.