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Swedish Kringle

Swedish Kringle
Kellen · Own work · CC BY-SA 3.0 · View on Wikimedia Commons

Swedish kringle is a rich, buttery pastry. In practice, it has a pie crust on the bottom and a layer of almond-flavored choux pastry (such as for making cream puffs) over that, plus icing. Don't skip the icing, because there's very little sugar in the dough. Because of the high egg content, this pastry must be stored in the refrigerator. Fortunately, it tastes good cold, too. This recipe makes a biscuit-tin's worth. It can be doubled to fill a 9x13 (quarter sheet) cake pan or quadrupled to make a half sheet. A half-sheet pan will serve a crowd.

Time
2 hours (plus about one hour to cool)
Servings
12

Ingredients

Icing

  • All-purpose flour
  • Butter, cold
  • Water
  • Water
  • Butter
  • White sugar
  • All-purpose flour
  • Almond extract
  • Eggs, large
  • Powdered sugar
  • Salt
  • Butter, softened
  • Milk
  • Vanilla extract (or almond extract)
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Method

  1. Mix like a pie crust: Cut the butter into the flour, then stir in the water. It will be somewhat dry and crumbly.
  2. Press the crumbs into the bottom of a biscuit tin or cake pan and set aside. (Do not bake yet.)
  3. Preheat oven to 375 °F (190 °C, gas mark 5, moderate/moderately hot).
  4. Boil the water and butter in a medium-size pan.
  5. Remove from heat. Dump the sugar and flour in all at once, and stir (e.g., with a wooden spoon) to form a uniform paste. The dough will be hot and thick at this stage. Traditionally, choux dough is cooked until it reaches 175 °F (80 °C) at this stage, but it needs to cool to about 145 °F (63 °C) before the next step, or the egg might fry instead of getting stirred in.
  6. Add the almond flavoring and the first egg, beating well with a spoon, until the egg is incorporated into the dough. (Do not use an electric mixer.) Then add the second egg, and beat again until the egg is incorporated. Finally, add the third egg, and beat again. Beating each egg in to the dough may take a minute or two per egg, especially for the last one.
  7. Spread the choux pastry over the unbaked crust with a spatula until fairly smooth.
  8. Bake at 375°F for about 45 minutes, until browned. The goal is at least a deep golden brown, not a pale beige. Don't underbake this, or it will completely collapse as soon as you take it out of the oven.
  9. Cool slowly. The center will sink as it cools.
  10. Beat the powdered sugar, salt, and butter together. Add milk and vanilla, and beat again until smooth.
  11. Spread on the cooled pastry.
  12. Serve within two hours, or refrigerate for up to three days.

Notes

  • You can spread a thin layer of raspberry preserves (or another favorite flavor of jam) on top of the baked, cooled dough. If you do this, consider making half as much icing and drizzling it decoratively over the jam. (You may need to add a little more milk to make it pour easily.) You can also sprinkle toasted sliced almonds across the icing.
  • Depending on your preferences, the amount of frosting can be cut in half or doubled. However, since the entire pastry has only one teaspoon of sugar in it, you should not omit it.
  • This is a high-fat dessert. If you are serving it as part of a dessert buffet, consider cutting two-bite size pieces (about 1x2 inches).

Equipment

  • Cake pan or rimmed baking sheet at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep – a biscuit tin (7x11 inches, 18 x 28 cm) or a square cake pan (8x8 in, 20x20 cm) is a good size