It's Kringle Season!

I can’t remember exactly when it was but I think two years ago I was wondering the isles of trader joe’s when i came across a pastry I had never seen before, kringle. I have a huge sweet tooth and because it was near the holidays I thought that it would be a nice treat to take home! I also saw that this was a Danish pastry and was excited to try a sweet from a different culture.

Fast forward to getting home and trying the kringle with me tea, OH MY GOSH. It was so good! Warmed up in the oven for a short while the pastry was soft, gooey, sweet and flavorful! The flavor I got from trader joe’s was almond so it reminded me a little of marzipan which I love. I was hooked. I went back the next day and a few times that week to clean them out and ended up gifting kringle to family and friends that year!

While kringle is definitely enjoyed year round and is even at trader joe’s year round but because of my first experience I associate it with a fall/winter treat! The kringle that Trader Joe’s sells is from a bakery in Racine, Wisconsin called O&H Danish Bakery. This bakery has been around since 1949 according to their site and they have a ton of unique flavors as well as other Danish pastry offerings.

You may have heard the term hygge before. It is described by them as creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying life. This includes things like finding beauty in small moments and connecting with family over good food and kringle of course! I love this concept and try to live by this as much as I can.

At trader joe’s it seems they bring kringle to their stores in the fall, winter and spring with flavors like pumpkin, almond and raspberry. So if you have a trader joe’s near you, you can head over there to give kringle a try if you haven’t already!

The O & H Danish Bakery website has a TON of flavors, they are a little pricey but totally worth it. My sister and I went in on a bulk pack of kringle that gives you a slight discount, free shipping and you get to choose your flavors. I got harvest, cinnamon roll, pecan and turtle. If you check out my instagram you will see an IG TV video showing the kringle and tasting a little tea with it. I really enjoyed the harvest flavor which is apple themed. Apple is such a lovely fruit and when baked I really enjoy it!

I will keep you updated on the other flavors but I can’t imagine Ill have anything but raving reviews! If pairing with tea I would suggest a stronger tea. The kringle is very sweet so a strong tea could cut that a little. In my video I enjoyed a raw pu’er with it!

Have you had kringle? If so what is your favorite flavor that you’ve tasted?

White Tea Apple Crumble

Crumble? Cobbler? Crisp? What’s the difference? Honestly, I don’t know. Even after looking them all up several times I see people refer to different things, different ways. That’s ok.

I’m naming this dish a crumble because to me, it’s a little crumbly just how I like it :)

This is another super simple recipe. While I will do some more in depth recipes too, to keep me on my one blog post a week routine, I need to keep things simple most of the time. The benefit of this is that I can figure out how to use ingredients I have on hand to create yummy things and share that with you too!

So today’s quick recipe, you need:

-Apples

-Butter

-Rolled oats

-Flour

-Baking soda (optional)

-Lemon

-Brown Sugar

-White tea

I used 4 apples for this crumble, they were two different kinds that I got in my weekly product box. In terms of prep, I would suggest slicing them relatively thinly so baking is quicker and cut out seeds etc. Some people peel the apples but I personally love the skin so I leave it on! Feel free to peel them if you’d like!

Tea comes into this recipe at the very start! I brewed up some white tea and soaked the apple for 2-3 hours in the tea! I brewed some Columbian white tea very strong and let it cool slightly before I put the apple in because I didn’t want them to soften too much.

After about 3 hours, they looks like this, tinted with the white tea (compare to above photos) and they had a lovely white tea fragrance and taste. The reason I brewed the white tea strongly is that this is a very subtle taste and I wanted the apples to get as much flavor as possible from the tea!

This dish that I’m using is actually a quiche dish but I like the taller edges so I always use it for pies and other things besides quiche. I also added in a handful of blueberries and blackberries to this for a little variety. Feel free to add your favorite fruits!

For the inside, I sprinkled about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, the juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. I usually use 1/3 a lemon but the lemon I had wasn’t very juicy so I used the whole one. I love tart so the more lemon the better but lessen this if you don’t want it as tart. As for the baking powder, I have made this without it and it was fine.

The topping is very simple also. I leave the rolled oats whole because I like the texture but if you want it less crunchy you can put them in a food processor and pulse a few times. I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and mixed it into 1 cup of rolled oats. I then sprinkled some flour over the oats, just a little like a teaspoon to a tablespoon. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit as evenly as you can and place in the oven!

I baked this at 350 for about 50 minutes. I did 30 minutes then checked on it and did 2 intervals of 10 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, I cute up some small cubes of butter and placed them over the topping to add a little golden brown buttery goodness. Let it cool slightly so you don’t burn your mouth and voila!

A simply crumble for you. The topping isn’t stuck together that much which is how I like it but if you would like it to stick together more I would increase the flour and butter when preparing the topping.

I could see this being pretty good with hojicha or roasted oolong apples as well!

I hope you enjoy tea soaked apple crumble :)