Kolache
Had lovely dreams of my time & friends in the Czech Republic & Slovakia last night; so woke this morning with kolache rather than cinnamon rolls on my mind, as a project to use up yesterday’s sweetened enriched dough. It was between that & Pudinkové šneky, the Czech version of Pain Aux Raisins, which I’ll make & post later.
One is a kolach, plural is kolache; kolaches is an Anglicized mangling of the plural. The best I’ve ever eaten were from a small bakery in Košice, Slovakia between the train station & the town square (getting lost on trains in central/eastern Europe is a favorite pastime, highly recommended). A brioche (sweetened, enriched) dough flattened into a little wheel (kolo is “wheel” in Czech), filled with a small puddle of jam (apricot, raspberry, blueberry, cherry are common), prune puree, sweetened cheese, or a poppy seed custard, with a dusting of streusel (drobenka / crumb) topping.
I used the faux brioche dough left over from the burger buns I made last night (they turned out amazing), refrigerated overnight & used straight from the ‘fridge. Usually I make a standard brioche dough, but this worked nicely.
Drobenka (streusel/crumb topping) -
1-1/2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tbsp room temperature butter
Work with fork &/or cold fingers to crumbly texture; cool in refrigerator
Punch down cold dough, flatten on a lightly floured work surface, dust dough lightly with flour, & roll out to ~1cm thick. If you have more dough than you can bake in a batch, keep the extra refrigerated & bring out when ready to use.
Cut into flat rounds with a floured 3” biscuit cutter (in a pinch, I’ve used the well-floured rim of a glass); 1/2 of my dough recipe made 6, which is a batch in my tiny oven.
Place on baking sheet, cover; allow to rise at room temperature until just slightly puffy. It’s easy to overproof these; will still be good.
Press wells in the center of each with a well-floured 2” round flat object; the base of a well-floured measuring cup, base of a glass, or such; a 1/4 c steel measuring cup worked for me. Floured fingers will work in a pich. Press firmly, until bottom is nearly paper-thin, without breaking through the bottom. If the bottom is too thick, the filling will be forced out of the well. Leave a 3/4 - 1 cm rim.
Brush rims with melted butter (optionally with an egg-water or egg white-water glaze)
Fill each well with a scant 1 tblsp of filling*
Sprinkle with drobenka
Bake at 350 F until lightly golden, ~15 minutes
Gently dab rims with melted butter while still warm from the oven, being careful to not brush off the drobenka
Let cool before eating them all. Not sure how long these will keep - they’ve never lasted a day, and rarely past noon, in my house.
*Fillings -
Various fruit jams (raspberry, blackberry, apricot, blueberry, sour cherry, black or red currant, stawberry-rhubarb, peach, are all good; I’ve used others, including chopped apples simmered with sugar, at room temperature. As I live in Blueberry Land, wild blueberry jam (borůvkový džem) is a favorite.
A prune filling is traditional & yummy:
2 cups dried prunes
water or prune juice to cover
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
Add water to prunes in a small saucepan; bring to boil, turn off heat & sit 20 minutes; add other ingredients & blend to a homogeneous jam (I use a handheld immersion blender). If made ahead of time & refrigerated, bring to room temperature before using.
I’ll usually make up a big batch of this, to be used in this & other treats; refrigerates & freezes well.
As is a cheese filling (my favorite):
6oz cream cheese, softened (traditionally, Czech tvaroh is used; farmers cheese or ricotta, or 1/2 ricotta & 1/2 cream cheese will work nicely)
1/4 c granulated white sugar
1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp lemon juice
Small pinch salt
Mix with fork or immersion blender to a thick creamy consistency
If made ahead of time & refrigerated, bring to room temperature before using
And a poppy seed (Mak) filling (maková náplň):
1/2 c whole poppy seeds, ground in a coffee grinder
1/4 c milk
1/8 c granulated white sugar
1/2 tbsp jam (your choice - apricot or blueberry are very good)
1/8 tsp lemon zest
In a small saucepan, simmer ground poppy seeds in milk; bring to light boil; add other ingredients, simmer @ low heat ~10 minutes, until seeds are soft
Cool before use; if made ahead of time & refrigerated, bring to room temperature before using.
Be creative; I’ve had kolache made with half-& half jam and cheese fillings 😋, & ones made in a figure-8 shape with 2 wells with different fillings; Czech immigrants in Texas have introduced savory versions with a sausage filling. Today I used blackberry jam, blueberry jam, & unsweetened preserved cherries from a dear friend in Prague’s tree (thanks Magdalena!).
I’ve been working on a gluten-free version for my friends who need to forgo gluten; had good luck with my first batch. Will post that dough recipe later.