I first spotted this recipe on Pinterest last spring. I love the unique shape of the kringle. The pinned recipe is in Italian and the original recipe is in Romanian – so thank goodness for Google Translate! I thought that this was a good recipe. The dough was very easy to work with. Next time I might keep the rolled dough rectangle smaller so that the finished ring is a little wider. It would look better that way.

Ingredients

For the dough:
½ cup warm milk
1 TBS sugar
1 packet or 2 ¼ tsp. yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk
2 TBS melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
3 TBS, almost melted
3 tsp cinnamon
4 TBS sugar

Mix the sugar and yeast with the milk. Allow to sit while the yeast activates. Add in the remaining dough ingredients, knead, and then shape into a ball. I kneaded the dough by hand for 5-10 minutes. I am sure it would be even easier if I used my stand mixer. Put the dough in a greased bowl and let rise for about one hour, or until doubled. Since it is winter and my house is colder I preheat my oven for 1-2 minutes, turn it off, and then place the bowl of dough in the slightly warm oven. It definitely helps with the rise time.

Preheat the oven to 400. In a small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon. Lightly flour your work area and roll the dough into a rectangle with about 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. Spread the rolled dough with melted butter, then top with the cinnamon mixture. Roll up the dough and use a knife to cut the log in half length-wise (hotdog style as they would have described in grade school). Twist the two halves together and then form the ring. You can check out the original recipe for a great photo tutorial on this process. Top the ring with any remaining butter and cinnamon mixture. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until golden.

You could top this with a cinnamon roll icing, but it is delicious on its own, especially when slightly warmed!

posted by Kara
Filed under: Baking