Estonian Kringel – Fresh From The Oven

I was really pleased that this was the bread chosen by Jo from Jo’s Kitchen for March’s Fresh From The Oven Baking Challenge.

It’s a fabulous looking loaf even before it gets its chocolate topping. In fact when I make it again I am going to add cinnamon to the sugar and leave out the chocolate and perhaps give it a bit of an icing glaze so it’s like a big cinnamon bun.

The basic premise is that you make a sweet enriched dough, roll out it out into a rectangle and spread it with butter, sugar and sultanas. You then roll it up swiss roll stylie and slice it in half lengthwise. Then you twist, rather than plait the two pieces of dough together before pulling it into a B shape.

I extended the first prove and then gave it a short 2nd prove in this wreath shape because I wasn’t sure how to get what I had into a ‘B’. My tip is to place one piece of dough over the other whilst trying to keep the cut edges of the dough uppermost. This is what gives the layered effect.

It puffed up gloriously in the oven so Ed took a photo of me being housewifey:

It seemed a shame to smother it in chocolate, but I had a little helper who was glad to lick the bowl where there was quite a lot of spare sauce:

It was lovely fresh from the oven on day one and good on day two dunked into  a cup of coffee:

This is one for the recipe file that will definitely be made again. Thanks for sharing Jo, I’d seen it on TV on The Hairy Bikers and although I had tracked down the recipe, I probably would not have got around to baking it were it not for FFTO.

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Here is the cinnamon version that I just made. I think it’s even better!

Kringel Recipe [comments added by me]

Dough

• 40g fresh yeast  [20g of dried, I used 15g and extended the prove]
• 1tbsp sugar
• 250ml milk, lukewarm
• 2 egg yolks
• 50g butter, melted
• 600-700g flour [I used 600g but went for 1/3 plain and 2/3 strong white]
• 1tsp salt

Filing

• 100g butter, softened
• 3 handfuls of raisins [I swapped this to sultanas softened in hot water]
• 10 tsp sugar

Topping

• 150g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids) [I used a mix of dark choc and Dairy Milk!]
• 75g butter

Method Mix the yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm milk and egg yolks, then mix in the flour, [salt] and melted butter and knead well. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. [or 2 hours!] Preheat oven to 200°c/Gas 6. Dust your work surface with flour. Take the dough out of the bow, knock it back and roll out to a thickness of 1cm. Spread the softened butter evenly over the rolled sheet of pastry, then sprinkle with raisins and finally sugar. [and a bit of cinnamon] Roll up the dough like a swiss roll and cut it in half with a sharp knife. Twist the dough together, lifting each half over the other in turn. Finally, shape the plaited bread into a B shape and transfer to a buttered baking tray. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden. In the meantime, prepare the chocolate topping by melting the chocolate and butter in a bowl over boiling water. Once out of the oven, let the bread cool down a bit, place on a serving plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce

Cinnamon Version

Add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the sugar that you spread over the bread and sprinkle some of it on the plaited loaf. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 after 5-10 minutes to stop it burning. Top with icing sugar mixed with water.

Tagged: Bread, Chocolate, ffto, Kringel, Oven, recipe, sweet

Posted in: Baking, Breads, Breakfasts, Claire, Food, Fresh From the Oven