February 24th is Estonian Independence day, known in Estonian as Vabariigi aastapäeva. Around this time of year I find myself indulging in all the Estonian foods I grew up with, one of my favourites being kringel.

A kringel is a sweet yeast bread, flavoured with cardamom and raisins, it's traditionally braided and pretzel shaped and is sometimes filled with cream or marzipan. It is usually topped with sliced almonds, powdered sugar or icing.

Many Scandinavian and Northern European countries have their own version of the recipe with similar names, in Danish and Norwegian kringle, Swedish and Icelandic kringla, in Latvian kliņģeris and Finnish rinkeli, all of them originating from the Old Norse kringla meaning ring or circle.

Kringel recipes vary from region to region, family to family. In fact my own grandmother or vanaema, has given me multiple variations of the recipe over the years, and no two are exactly the same. Probably because like many grandmothers her measurements include "until there's enough" and "to your taste".

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The pretzel shaped kringel is beautiful and the size and shape is great for parties. However for a small household like ours, it's not ideal. Many years ago I started baking my braided kringels in loaf tins which I found made slices more practical for toasting. Personally I don't have a sweet tooth so when I bake kringel I skip the filling and icing, but I double the raisins because in my opinion there are never enough.

This is my kringel recipe, a mashup of the recipes my grandmother gave me. It makes two braided loaves. Add or leave out your what you like and as my vanaema says, "make it to your taste". Enjoy

 KRINGEL RECIPE

Ingredients  5-6 cups (650-750g) flour 1 tbsp (6g) cardamom, ground 1½ cups (375ml) milk 3 tbsp (18g) yeast ¾ cup (150g) sugar 3 eggs, 1 separated 1 cup (227g) butter 1 tsp (6g) salt 1 cups raisins 1 cup slivered almonds powdered sugar

Method:

1. Warm milk slightly, careful not to heat above 140˚F/60˚C. Add 1 tbsp sugar and active dry yeast to warm milk, stir and allow to bloom (about 5-10 minutes).
2. Melt butter, set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl combine yeast mixture, sugar and eggs (reserving one egg white for egg wash).
4. Add melted butter to yeast mixture.
5. In a separate bowl mix salt and ground cardamom into 3 cups of flour. Then add flour mixture into yeast mixture and begin to knead. Whether kneading by hand or machine, add remaining flour ½ cup at a time until dough no longer sticks to your hands or bowl. Dough will be sticky but should not be wet.
6. Cover the bowl and allow to rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
7. After 1 hour the dough should have more than doubled in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on well-floured counter.
8. Gently knead the raisins into the dough, note some raisins will come loose as you knead. When most raisins are incorporated, roll into a ball and cover on the counter, let rest 10 minutes.
9. Divide dough into 6 equal portions.
10. Roll out each portion into logs or ropes about 12 inches long. Braid 3 ropes together to make 2 braided loaves.
11. Place each braid on to a lined cookie sheet or into a loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size (this can take 1-2 hours depending on the ambient temperature).
12. Brush the tops of both kringel loaves with reserved egg wash. Sprinkle generously with sliced almonds.
13. Bake at 350˚F/180˚C until golden brown (about 30 minutes). Cool on wire racks.
14. Enjoy!