Kringle Recipe

All the tender, flakey goodness of a Danish, but with a quarter of the work.

A close-up of a sliced kringle with cherry jam.

Serious Eats / Alexandra Penfold

Why It Works

  • The filling can be customized with any jam or nuts.
  • Making a tender pastry dough by cutting butter into flour and adding sour cream is faster than the traditional yeasted dough.

When Danish immigrants settled in Racine, Wisconsin in the late 1800s, they brought with them a tender, buttery, fruit or nut-filled pastry known as the kringle. While kringle is the Danish word for pretzel, these days kringles are typically formed in a large ring or rectangle. Ask a Wisconsinite about kringle and they'll likely have a story or two. When I appealed to my Wisconsin pals to school me in the ways of the kringle, one friend replied with clear directions: "Drive to Racine. Buy kringle. Scarf down kringle in car quickly, so as to avoid sharing."

Equally at home as a breakfast treat or a sinful dessert—try kringle à la mode—it's easy to see how these pastries could inspire hoarding behaviors. Traditional recipes typically involve cutting butter into a yeast dough and can take up to three days to prepare.

But if a road trip to Racine isn't in your immediate future, there's hope for the hungry. There is an easier (and certainly not lesser) kringle made with butter, sour cream, and flour that turns out a delicate and delicious pastry in a fraction of the time it takes to make a yeasted kringle. And once you've had a kringle you'll never look at a store-bought regular old Danish the same way again.

Kringles can be filled with fruit or nuts. Cherry, apple and almond are popular and traditional fillings. Special thanks to Racine native MJ Diem for sharing her mother's kringle recipe which has been adapted here.

January 2012

Recipe Details

Kringle Recipe

Active 60 mins
Total 3 hrs
Serves 12 servings

Ingredients

For the Kringle:

  • 1 cup sour cream

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 2 cups flour

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled

  • 1 egg

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 1 cup sour cherry jam

For the Icing:

  • 1 cup powdered sugar

  • 2 tablespoons milk

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, mix together sour cream and vanilla. Set aside.

  2. Using a pastry blender or (several pulses with a food processor) cut together flour and butter so butter is reduced to small pea-sized bits. Stir in sour cream mixture. Blend well to form a dough. Divide into two disks. Flatten disks slightly, cover and chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

  3. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). In a small bowl whisk together egg and sugar. Set aside. On a floured work surface, roll out each dough disk into a 12-by-6 inch rectangle. Spread cherry jam down center in a thin strip leaving 2 inches clear on each side and an inch and a half at both ends. Fold sides over center then fold ends up, press lightly to seal. Brush with egg wash.

  4. Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm kringle. Cool on a wire rack. Store in a covered container. Best within a day.

Special Equipment

Baking sheet, pastry cutter or food processor, parchment paper

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
308 Calories
20g Fat
30g Carbs
4g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories 308
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 20g 25%
Saturated Fat 12g 58%
Cholesterol 67mg 22%
Sodium 17mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 30g 11%
Dietary Fiber 1g 3%
Total Sugars 13g
Protein 4g
Vitamin C 1mg 7%
Calcium 35mg 3%
Iron 1mg 6%
Potassium 81mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)