09/05/2026
Kringle is the official state pastry of Wisconsin, and it comes from Racine.
Danish immigrants brought it in the 1800s, settling Racine in large numbers. In Denmark, kringle is traditionally shaped like a pretzel, which is where the name comes from. Racine bakers eventually flattened it into the oval ring that everyone recognizes now, which is easier to make and easier to slice.
The dough is the whole thing and it takes days. It is a laminated yeast dough, layered with butter and folded repeatedly the way puff pastry or croissant dough is made, then rested overnight between turns. Serious bakeries run a three-day process. The result is dozens of paper-thin layers that bake up flaky rather than bready.
That is what separates a real kringle from the dense coffee cake ring sold as kringle elsewhere.
The filling goes in before it is shaped into the oval, then it gets baked flat and finished with a thin sugar icing drizzled across the top.
Pecan is the standard. Almond, cherry, raspberry, apple, cream cheese and the seasonal ones fill out the list. Every Racine bakery has a following and people are loyal.
O&H Danish Bakery is the biggest name, founded in 1949 and now run by the fourth generation of the Olesen family. Bendtsen's has been going since 1934. Larsen's, Lehmann's.
They ship enormously, which is how kringle reached the rest of the country. Racine bakeries send thousands of them out at Christmas.
The legislature made it the state pastry in 2013 after a Racine push.
It comes in a flat box. You cut it in slices across the ring.
And the correct answer to how many people a kringle serves is somewhere between one and eight, depending entirely on the honesty of the person answering.
