Katrin Kütti-Otsa has shared her mother's kringel recipe, and many people from Traditional Estonian Cooking and Eating FB group have now adopted this as their gold standard recipe.
Prep time: up to 4 hours including bake time
Serves: up to 20+ people
Recipe
- 2 regular dry yeast envelopes
- 1/4 cup tepid/warm water to activate the yeast
- 1 3/4 cups homogenized (3%) milk
- saffron threads (a good pinch)
- 7.5 – 8 cups all purpose flour (no sifting needed)
- 3 sticks (3/4 lb) salted butter at room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks at room temp (reserve the whites to brush the kringel before baking)
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
- grated rind of 1 lemon
- 1 – 1/5 cups dark raisins (washed liberally and dried in a rolled up in a clean tea towel)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- egg whites (from above)
- almond slivers
Method of preparation
1. Add yeast envelopes to water, let stand – do not stir
2. Add saffron to milk and heat to just the boiling point. Let cool in a large bowl, then add 3 cups flour and yeast/water mixture. Stir to mix, cover. Leave for 30-45 minutes.
3. Cream butter and sugar in the last 10 minutes of step 2. Add egg yolks one at a time to the creamed mixture. Beat until well mixed. Add cardamom, lemon rind and salt. Mix well.
4. Combine creamed mixture into the yeast starter. Add remaining flour in stages, by hand, scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed.
**When the dough separates from your hand, it is ready to add the raisins (unrolling the dish towel over the bowl). Mix gently, distributing the raisins evenly. (Do not worry if the dough comes clean before you’ve used up all the flour.)
5. Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel and leave for 2 – 3 hours until dough is doubled in size.
6. Roll out dough on to a clean, lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a large pretzel shape or divide into three and create a braid loaf.
7. Place dough shape on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Adjust/re-shape as needed to fit. Brush the kringel with beaten egg whites and sprinkle with almond slivers.
8. Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes, until surface is golden brown. Test for doneness with a toothpick or a longer skewer.
NB: Ovens may vary, adjust baking temp or time to suit yours.
9. Once out of the oven, cool under a dish towel. Dust with icing sugar, slice and serve!
