Another Kringle

One of our favorite Christmas day treats is a Raspberry Almond Kringle pastry. I usually make the pastry part the night before and then add the jam and almonds and drizzle on Christmas morning.

This past week I had a work day in town with fellow P.E.O. scholarship nonprofit members as we prepared for an upcoming state convention. Our Sebastopol chapter is a hostess chapter this year.

It was also the birthday of our chapter AJ delegate to convention, so we had a surprise birthday party for her. Since it was a morning gathering, with coffee, I decided to bake and bring the Christmas morning pastry, but without the almond paste. Now that I've had it both ways, I do like it better with the almond paste, but it's still very tasty...and easier, plus less expensive...without the almond paste.

You can easily tailor this to your own taste buds by using a different flavor of jam, adding another kind  of nut or even a different nut paste instead of almond paste...a pistachio paste and strawberry jam sounds yum!...or adding a citrus zest to the dough or the drizzle...you get the idea.

If you need to have it ready early as I did, bake the bottom pastry, top it with the cream puff pastry and bake it, then wrap well and leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning unwrap, add jam, nuts and the confectioners sugar drizzle and you're ready to serve. If you cut small pieces this can serve quite a few people, but it's hard to eat a small piece and to not want another one! Plan accordingly, right? 

Almond Raspberry Kringle
Based on a recipe from King Arthur Flour

BASE

• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, cut into pats
• 1 cup  all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold water

PASTRY TOPPING

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
•  3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

FILLING

• about 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 2-3 tablespoons sliced almonds

GLAZE

• 1 cup confectioners'  sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk, enough to make a thick but pourable glaze
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a baking sheet that's at least 18" x 13"; or a 14" round pizza pan.
 

2.    To make the base: Combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt, mixing until crumbly. I used a pastry blender to cut the fat into the flour mixture. Add the water, and stir to make a soft, sticky dough. I used a fork and added the water slowly as I do for pie crust.

3.    Wet your hands, pick up the dough, and shape it into a 12" x 8" oval ring on the sheet pan; or a 10" ring in the pizza pan. This will be messy going, but just keep wetting your fingers and pushing it into a ring. An easy way to approach this is to first divide the dough into four pieces; roll each piece into a 9" rope, then connect the ropes and shape them into a ring.

4.    Once you've made the ring, flatten the dough so it's about 1 1/2" wide; basically, it'll look like a train or NASCAR track. 

5.    To make the pastry topping: Place the water, butter, and salt in a saucepan, and heat over medium heat until the margarine is melted and the mixture is boiling.

6.    Immediately add the flour, stirring with a spatula until the mixture is cohesive and starts to form a ball.

7.    Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the almond extract at the end.

8.    Spread the pastry along the ring, covering it completely; you'll now have a much wider ring, though it won't be completely closed in the center; it should still look like a ring.

9.    Bake the kringle for 50 to 60 minutes, until it's a deep golden brown. When the kringle is done, remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool completely on the pan.

10. To add the filling: First, have the sliced almonds all ready beside the pan of kringle; you'll be sprinkling them atop the jam as soon as you put it on.

11.    Stir the jam with a fork to break it up and then spread it over the kringle in a thin, even layer, mostly in the middle. Sprinkle sliced almonds atop the raspberry jam, pressing them in gently. Allow the kringle to cool completely.

12.    To make the glaze: Stir together the confectioners' sugar, salt, almond extract and enough milk to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle it over the kringle.

13.    To serve, cut the kringle in 2" slices.

If you prefer, you can bake the base, and cooked dough topping the day before serving, then wrap well and let sit on the counter overnight. In the morning add the jam, almonds and glaze. 

As long as I'm posting, I want to show you Sweetie's fishermen's hat I repaired yesterday. He has had this hat for a long time and it's his favorite. It also look really good on him, so it was worth repairing when the liner shredded from too many years of wear...and then the crown started to have a slit.

First I used an iron-on mending patch to fix the crown. This is a wool cap, but I used a sturdy twill patch in the same color. Well. similar color. The hat is showing a lot of fading in various places, so it's more charcoal than black. Then I cut out a tissue pattern for the liner and used some heavy weight black silk charmeuse that I had from a previous project to cut an oval to replace the old liner. A couple sessions of hand sewing and he had his cap back. It still looks kinda beat up, but he likes it that way. The hat will probably fall apart before that new liner shreds, so it's good to go for another 10 years or so.

Another piece of my week is the garden. Despite it being only mid-April, many of the iris are finished blooming and we even have a daylily in bloom. They usually bloom in July! Everything seems fast-forwarded this year, but we are still getting rain this coming week and nights have returned to being chilly. The Black Krim tomato starts that I bought today at the hardware store will have to stay in the sunspace for a week or so until the nights warm up a bit. I might plant one to see if the fast-forward effect works on container plants, too. Anyway, I'll finsih off with a photo of a daisy in the garden. It's almost as big as my hand!