I was lying in bed the other night when my iWatch tapped me on the wrist. (The watch has a haptic function that allows it to tap you lightly on the wrist with a vibration to deliver reminders, alert you to the end of a timer you’ve set or indicate when you should make turns while driving. Kinda cool.)
This particular message told me that I could meet my daily exercise goal if I would only take a brisk 29 minute walk. It was 11 p.m.
Hmmm. What to do?
I could venture into the dark and forbidding reaches of my cold garage and walk on the treadmill for 29 minutes or I could get up and burn some calories cooking until I felt sleepy again. Life, at least my life, is full of tough decisions.
This pastry recipe for almond puff loaf had been on the top of my ever-growing stack of must-try recipes for a couple of weeks, so I decided to give it a late night nod. The recipe had piqued my curiosity because it combines a shortcrust pastry with a pate a choux pastry all in one recipe. I’ve never done that before. Fun. Somehow, when you layer the two doughs one on top of the other, magic happens in the oven and the two doughs fuse into one delicious whole, giving you a crisp bottom (like a cookie) and an airy top (like an eclair). The end result is a beautiful pastry worthy of a fancy bakery shop–a light and flaky pastry you thought you never-ever-never would be able to bake at home.
This recipe is currently the star recipe on King Arthur Flour’s April “bakealong.” Each month the baking site selects one great recipe to feature and encourages home cooks to bake it and share their experiences. This recipe has received glowing feedback and some of the posters have pointed to a decades-old Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe for kringle as its long-ago inspiration.
Kringle is a recipe that was brought to Racine, Wisconsin, by Danish immigrants in the late 1800s and is now the state’s official pastry. (I just looked it up. California doesn’t even have a state pastry. What in the heck is wrong with us? Write your legislator!)
An authentic kringle is a labor-intensive hand-rolled pastry that has many flaky layers and can have a sweet or savory filling. This Betty Crocker/KAF recipe uses the two-dough shortcut to save you a lot of time and yields a delicious result.
Here is a short video about Racine’s kringles. The video gives you a peek at the kringle obsession that grips Wisconsinites every November and December: Racine, Wisconsin and Kringles .
Now that I’ve seen the packages of Wisconsin kringles in the videos, I realize that I’ve seen similar packages in Trader Joe’s during the winter holidays. (Trader Joe’s never ceases to amaze me. From bags of frozen Hatch chiles to sugared jalapeno slices to cans of authentic San Marzano tomatoes to kringles, the chain is unerring in its ability to identify food trends. Now, if they would just bring back those colorful boxes of roobios and honey bush tea that I’ve become addicted to!)
Since I’m a party of one, it has been a big task to eat all the pastry from this recipe but, trust me, I’ve given it my best. Now I really do need that brisk 29 minute walk!
Save RecipeIngredients
- 4 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 t. salt
- 4 ounces cold unsalted butter (cut into pats or 1/2 inch cubes)
- 2 ounces ice water
- 8 ounces water
- 1/2 t. salt
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 4 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 3 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 t. almond extract
- 7 ounces jam or preserves
- 2 1/2 ounces sliced almonds (toasted in a 350 degree F. oven for 7-10 minutes or until light golden brown)
- 2 ounces powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 t. vanilla extract or 1/4 t. almond extract
- 1 to 2 t. milk or water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease the pan.
- For the bottom layer, use a medium-sized mixing bowl. Combine the flour and salt and then work the cold butter into the flour until you have a crumbly mixture. I used my fingers but you could use a pastry blender or a mixer. Stir in the water and mix until your dough comes together. Your dough will hold together but it will not be smooth.
- Divide your dough in half and put the dough halves on your baking sheet with 4-6 inches of space between them and about 2 inches on each side. Wet your hands and shape each piece of the dough into a log. Then, pat the logs into 10 inch by 3 inch rectangles. Be patient.
- To make the top layer (the choux pastry), boil water, salt and butter in a medium saucepan until the butter is completely melted. Add the flour to the water/butter mixture all at once and stir the mixture until it thickens and begins to steam. Continue stirring until the mixture pulls away from the side of the pan. This will happen very quickly, so watch your pan carefully. Stir a few times past this point and then remove the dough from the stovetop and put your dough into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed for about 30 seconds to one minute to cool it down a bit. Then add the three room-temperature eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Continue to beat until the eggs are fully incorporated. Mix in the almond extract.
- Divide the batter in half and spread batter on top of the two rectangles of dough you have already positioned on your baking sheet. You can use a spatula or your wet fingers to do this. You will need to be careful that this top layer is spread so that it completely covers the top and sides of the dough rectangles. Do this carefully and smooth the top of the batter when you are through.
- Bake your pastries for 50-65 minutes. They should be a golden brown when they are finished.
- While the pastries are baking, prepare the jam topping. Put your jam into the microwave to warm it and make it more spreadable. I used apricot. The original recipe suggested that the best choices were apricot and raspberry but allowed that any number of jams or preserves could be used.
- When the pastries are fully baked, remove them from the oven and set them on a rack to cool. While they are cooling, spread the warm jam on the top of the pastries and then sprinkle with toasted almonds.
- Allow the pastries to cool completely before drizzling with the icing . To prepare the icing, mix sugar, extract and enough milk or water to make a thick but pourable icing. Add the liquid a bit at a time until your icing is the right consistency. If you get your icing too thin, you can add more powdered sugar. Use a spoon and drizzle this icing in thin lines across the top of your pastry.
- Cut into squares or strips to serve.
- I found that this pastry was exceptional but did not store well, so serve it on the day it is prepared.
Here is the link to the original recipe from King Arthur’s Flour: Almond Puff Loaf.
