It’s time for breakfast with the Breakfast Club! I’ve been searching the Internet and my various cookbooks for new and interesting breakfast pastry ideas, and funny enough, I can find inspiration in the most unusual (sometimes) places.
I first learned about kolaches after reading Sarah Becan’s fantastic webcomic, I Think You’re Sauceome. She has a family recipe for kolaches, which her sister makes and Sarah illustrated. I tried Sarah’s family’s recipe back in early April, but didn’t have the best results, so I kept looking. And then I found Joe Pastry.
Joe’s website is pretty intense, but I tried his and was pleased with the initial results. He didn’t provide a yield with his recipe, so when I tested, I cut the recipe in half and found that it made 12 small kolaches. Since I wanted something bigger, I knew that the halved recipe would make 6 large kolaches, so his original would make 12. Perfect!
I adapted his recipe and tweaked the seasoning just a bit, adding my favorite cardamom to the mix, and found that crystallized ginger in streusel is AWESOME. Overall, this is a breakfast pastry keeper.
Oh wait, don’t know what a kolache is? According to Wikipedia:
Kolache (also spelled kolace, kolach, or kolacky is a type of pastry that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough. Originating as a semisweet wedding dessert from Central Europe, they have become popular in parts of the United States.
I’ve read that the sweet cream cheese filling, which I used, is a pretty standard option in the US, and there is also a traditional poppyseed filling that I’m interested in trying once I get more poppyseeds.
Some people describe the pastry like a Danish, but less buttery and flakey. I describe it as a divine breakfast roll filled and topped with goodness!
Do you have a family kolache recipe? How does this one measure up? Or is there a favorite spot you go to pick them up? Let me know … I’m curious!
And if you ever have a suggestion for a breakfast pastry for me to try out, leave me a comment or send me an email!
Ingredients
Directions
For the kolaches, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and yeast) in a bowl, whisking to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standmixer, combine the milk and butter, beating with the paddle attachment to combine. Add the eggs and continue to mix so that the eggs don't cook.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined, scraping down as necessary.
Remove the paddle attachment and switch over to the dough hook. Knead for 7 minutes, pushing to dough down and off the dough hook as necessary.
Lightly oil another mixing bowl and place the dough in it, rolling it around to coat with oil. Cover lightly with plastic wrap or a dish towel. Set aside some place slightly warm (avoid anyplace too drafty) to rise and double in size.
The dough will take approximately 1-2 hours to rise, depending on your yeast and the area you keep the dough.
Once the rise is complete, divide the dough into 12 equal balls, each weighing approximately 3 oz. Roll them on a lightly oiled surface with one hand, smoothing the surface.
Place the balls onto a pan either lined with parchment or baker's silicone. Set aside to rise again for 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjust oven racks toward the center.
While the dough balls are rising, make the sweet cream cheese filling and streusel topping.
For the filling, combine all the ingredients into a bowl and stir well to combine. Set aside.
For the streusel, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Using a pastry blender or your hands, work the streusel into a crumbly topping ... nothing should be bigger than a pea. Set aside
Once the dough balls finish the 20-minute rise, make an indentation with your finger, pressing down and out. Fill with approximately 2 tbsp of sweet cream cheese filling.
Set the filled kolaches aside to rise for another 15 minutes.
After the final rise, brush the kolaches with the reserved egg whites and top with streusel.
Place the kolaches in the oven for 10 minutes, then rotate the pans and bake for another 10 minutes until the kolaches are golden (20 minutes total).
Let the kolaches cool slightly before serving.
May 10, 2013 at 3:40 pm
My great grandmother was from Slovakia, and she made wonderful Kolache with a walnut filling. I grew up with her region’s incarnation of “semi-sweet dough with stuff in it”, and it resembles a nut roll more than anything. The filling is whipped egg whites with a walnut, butter, and sugar mixture folded in.
May 10, 2013 at 3:44 pm
PS, Here’s a photo of mine that I dug up from my archives. I make them every year, but just don’t photograph them all the time.
May 15, 2013 at 10:06 am
Hey Katie, thanks so much for sharing! The world of Kolache/Kolacky has been fascinating…each region has such an interesting spin on the pastry. If you’d ever like to share this recipe (or others) as a guest baker, let me know!