I promise this is very likely a one-time thing

I can assure you most whole-heartedly that this will never be a recipe blog. Plenty of people already have that whole "food blog" thing covered, and it should be obvious by now that the culinary arts are not my area of expertise. I cook a proper meal about as often as I change my furnace filter (that's about four times a year, for you non-homeowners out there), so I'm really not in any position to come here raving about some new recipe you must try. Pomegranate martinis? That I have covered. Canapes* and antipasto? Not so much.

In any case, I am compelled to share a recipe today, only because I just received it via e-mail from my lovely friend Simone as a follow-up to the party- and Norwegian-snack-related comments on two recent posts from the past week. I won't pretend the whole lot of you are dying to make a batch of Kringler (which is, apparently, the proper spelling for this mystery pastry known as "Kringla") on your own, but I thought at least one or two of you might be curious enough to try. (If you do, let me know how it goes, as I doubt I'll be testing this recipe myself any time in the terribly near future.)

So here you are. Norwegian Kringler. Just like Simone's aunt (and, presumably, -R-'s Iowan grandma) used to make...

BASE:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1-2 tbsp. water

TOPPING:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp. almond extract
3 eggs

GLAZE:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. half and half or cream
1 tbsp. butter
1-2 tsp. almond extract

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, combine 1 cup flour. Using pastry blender or fork, cut in 1/2 cup butter until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle flour mixture with 1 tablespoon water while tossing and mixing lightly with fork.

Form dough into ball; divide in half. On ungreased cookie sheet, form dough into 2 (14 x 3-inch) rectangles.

In medium saucepan, heat 1 cup water and 1/2 cup butter to boiling; remove from heat. Add 1 cup flour; stir until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon almond extract.

Spread topping mixture over base. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

In small bowl, combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle glaze over cooled Kringler.

I would like to note that I cook and bake so seldomly and, consequently, have such a poorly stocked kitchen that my first thought upon scanning the ingredients was, "Wow. I could actually almost make this if I wanted to. All I'd need is some almond extract. I already have everything else!" And then I realized, "Wait. I don't have eggs." And then, "Or powdered sugar." And I have Half & Half only because I bought it to make White Russians at my party last weekend and then forgot and neglected to make them anyway. So basically I was excited and proud of myself because I had butter, flour, and water on hand. Yep. I'm a regular Martha Stewart. Don't even try telling me otherwise.


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* I love that this is not in Blogger's spell check dictionary, but Cannabis (its suggested replacement) is.