The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

Kolaches are something one doesn’t find too often on bakery shelves in Vancouver. These little pastries originated in the Czech Republic, and consist of a sweet yeast dough with fillings ranging from different types of fruit preserves to cheese. I first discovered these little things years ago when I still lived in New York, but until recently have not really had any strong desire to tackle these in my kitchen.

I’m not one of those people who is easily intimidated by making yeast breads of any kind, but there is something I can’t quite put my finger on that happens when I make sweet breads involving yeast: they never taste quite as good as when they’re made by other people.

Similar to when I was a kid, I always thought my friends sandwiches tasted way better than mine. Not because my mother didn’t make a good sandwich, because she did, but for some completely random reason that makes no logical sense.

For this reason it has taken me a very long time to actually work past what I perceived to be guaranteed disappointment. I have been reading this recipe over and over for the pat 2 weeks, trying to figure out where I would go wrong and telling myself that there has to be an answer to this in the recipe and I must just be missing it.

Well the only answer appeared to be  my obvious fear of mediocrity, so I finally decided that last weekend was the time to get over it and give these things a whirl and I’m so glad that I did! These were absolutely amazing, soft and slightly sweet and not in the least bit disappointing. I recommend giving them a try if you have a few hours to spare on a lazy Sunday, you will be gald you did.

Kolaches or Kolacki - recipe adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible

This recipe makes 16 to 17 Kolaches.

For the Bread

1 tablespoon or one package of active dry yeast

3 tablespoons of sugar

1/2 cup warm water (105 -115 degrees Fahrenheit)

1 1/2 cups of warm milk (105 -115 degrees Fahrenheit)

Grated zest of one lemon

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 – 6 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour

1 stick of butter, diced and at room temperature

For the fruit filling

I made this recipe twice – with dried apricots and dried cherries as I like to have a variety of fillings.

8oz dried fruit of your choice, I used cherries and apricots

1/3 cup sugar

zest of one lemon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the cheese filling

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup sugar

one egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

zest of one lemon

For the glaze (optional)

1 cup powdered confectioners sugar

Freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the bread

In a small bowl combine the warm water and yeast and stir to dissolve. Sprinkle just a pinch of the sugar over top and set aside for 10 minutes or until foamy.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or alternatively in a large bowl using a whisk if doing this by hand combine the remaining sugar, 2 cups of the flour, salt, the warm milk, grated lemon zest and eggs, and beat hard for a minute.

Add the yeast mixture and beat hard again for one minute. Once the yeast is incorporated add the butter gradually and mix until completely incorporated. Add the remaining flour half a cup at a time until you get a soft dough that just clears the side of the bowl. If you are doing this by hand you will want to use a wooden spoon to make this a bit easier. I only used 6 cups of the flour to achieve this, you want to make sure that you haven’t used too much flour or your kolaches will be hard.

At this point turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic around 2 minutes. I knead my dough in the mixer and switch to the bread hook for this.

Transfer dough to a well greased bowl, turning it once to coat and let rise in a warm place away from any draft for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.While your dough rises you can make the fillings for your kolaches.

For the fruit fillings

I like my kolaches to have both cheese and fruit fillings in each, so I decided to make 2 different kinds of fruit filling using dried apricots and dried cherries.

In a small to medium sized sauce pan combine the dried fruit and sugar and fill with water just to cover. Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat and then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes or until the dried fruit is soft.

Let the mixture cool down a bit, then transfer to a food processor and add the lemon zest and butter and pulse to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the cheese filling

In a food processor combine ricotta cheese, sugar, egg, zest and vanilla and pulse until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Once your dough has risen, punch down to release the air and form into small balls – around the size of a golf ball. Press them down until they are about 3 inches in diameter and about 3/4 to one inch thick and place in a large greased deep baking pan. Cover and let rise for about 40 minutes or until your rounds are nice and puffy.

Preheat your oven to 350 fahrenheit 20 minutes before you are ready to bake your kolaches.

Once the rounds have risen, make an indent with your thumb that’s large enough to hold your desired amount of filling. I like to have both cheese and fruit filling in my kolaches so I made the centers quite large and used approximately one teaspoon of both fruit and cheese filling in each.

Bake for 25 minutes or until nicely browned on the out side.

I decide to make a glaze for mine and just mixed a little powdered sugar with some freshly squeezed lemon juice and with a whisk lightly glazed the top of my kolaches while they were still warm.