Danish kringles have been around for a while. They can be found in many countries around the world. Kringle dough has a very specific recipe, but you can play around with the fillings. Some modifications have been made to the original recipe and even to the shape of these delicious pastries. For instance, in the United States, the original pretzel shape was changed. Bakers adopted an oval shape to do away with the unfilled, overlapping parts of the traditional shape.

If you're interested in trying Danish kringles, here's what you need to know before you look for a local bakery that makes them.

What Is a Kringle?

So, what is a Kringle? Basically, a kringle is a Danish pastry made using buttery dough. The dough has lots of layers, and this makes the final product light and flaky. According to Real Racine, an authentic Danish kringle features 32 layers of flaky dough filled with different fruit and nut fillings. The fillings are placed before the baking is done. Once the fillings are in, the kringles are then baked until they are golden brown. Then the bakers drizzle them with icing. Most bakers use almonds, pecans, raspberries, cherries, apples, cream cheese, and strawberries as fillings.

The American History of Danish Kringles

Kringles were first introduced to Wisconsin in the late 1800s by Danish bakers. At some point, Danish bakers went on strike, and the bakery owners replaced them with workers from Austria. When the Danish bakers returned to work, they adopted the new Austrian way of making dough. The Austrian bakers would roll butter between layers of dough and let it rest for a few hours before baking.

How Kringles Are Made

Making Danish kringles is not a walk in the park. They are very labor intensive, and it can take up to three days to prepare them. This is because they are usually made with around thirty layers of delicate pastry dough. One of the challenging parts of making kringles is rolling the butter thinly between several layers of dough. According to most bakers, you need to roll slowly to make each layer thinner. Traditional Racine bakers deliver a flat, oval kringle instead of a pretzel-shaped kringle.

Kringles and other traditional Danish pastries have gained a huge following over the years. They have been featured on a lot of talk shows, and in 2010, they were declared “delicious” by President Barack Obama. One of the advantages of kringles is that you can play around with the fillings to give different flavors. This makes them great as an anytime snack or even as gifts too. If you're ready to try authentic kringles, visit our bakery today!