Cream Cheese Kringle

Traditional kringle requires bakers fold the dough dozens of times and stop repeatedly to allow it to chill and relax. But we wondered if the three-day marathon was really necessary, or if some of it was overkill. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• The key to a fluffy kringle is to trap layers of butter in the dough by folding it over and over again. We eliminated this time-consuming step by cutting cubes of cold butter into the dry ingredients before forming the dough.
• We found that sour cream created a flaky texture by weakening the dough’s gluten structure, but, when combined with the already present butter, it made for a greasy pastry. We solved this by removing some of the butter. To keep the pastry tender, we then replaced a bit of the remaining butter with vegetable shortening.
• We cut down the overnight rest to just a few hours without any noticeable ill effects on the finished kringle.
• Less is more when it comes to the glaze. We thinned ours out a bit with some milk and applied it sparingly.
• If preparing the filling ahead of time, be sure to bring it to room temperature before you attempt to spread the filling onto the dough.
• When spreading the filling, leave some room around the edges so it doesn’t leak out the sides.