Kolaches

Directions

Make the blueberry compote first:

In a 1 quart saucepan, boil the water and sugar for 5 minutes.  Stir in the blueberries and simmer, stirring occasionally until they begin to burst.  This will take a few more minutes.  Remove from the heat and use a potato masher to slightly mash the blueberries, so you don’t have large whole ones…(you can make the compote as chunky as you like, by barely mashing it at all).   Transfer the mixture to a glass bowl and cool before putting in the fridge.  Keep the compote in the fridge until you are ready to fill the Kolaches.

Make the streusel

In a medium bowl, place the sugar and flour.  With a pastry cutter, cut in your very cold butter until it resembles a course mixture. (see picture)..  Keep in the fridge until ready to sprinkle on the buns.

Make the cream cheese filling

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Beat until the sugar is completely incorporated.  Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy.  Keep in the fridge until ready to scoop into the buns.

Make the dough

In your stand mixer bowl, combine the yeast and one tablespoon of sugar.  Place your milk in a glass mixing cup and microwave it for about 35 to 40 seconds.  Add half the milk to the yeast mixture and with a fork, whisk it up until it’s all combined.   Let it proof for a few minutes until it becomes foamy.  To this mixture, add the remaining sugar, oil, salt and the other 1/2 cup of milk.  Add one cup of the flour, beaten eggs and butter.  Slowly begin to add the remaining flour until the dough comes together into a ball. (this took me about 3 minutes)… You may need a bit more or less than the 5 cups.  As soon as the dough comes together, you can stop adding flour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until it is very smooth.  This step took me about 3-4 minutes.  I used the same mixing bowl and cleaned it out, buttered it and placed the dough in it to rise.  Make sure you turn your dough over once so it’s all covered with butter.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a draft free part of your kitchen to rise.  Set your timer for one hour.

Punch the risen dough down and divide into 2 large equal balls.  Line two baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment.  Begin making balls that weigh about 2 ounces each. (I was able to make 20 balls of dough) On one baking pan, I put 3 balls of dough across and 4 balls of dough down.  In the other pan I placed 2 balls of dough across and 4 down.

Flatten the balls of dough slightly with the palm of  your hand.  Brush each disk with melted butter.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 20 minutes.

Flatten the balls of dough again and this time, make a well in each one. (See my photo).  With a mini scoop or just a spoon,  fill each well with some of the cream cheese filling…dividing it equally into each bun.   On top of the filling, place a tablespoon of the cooled blueberry compote.

Sprinkle the cold streusel mixture over each bun.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for 30 minutes. While the dough is rising for the last time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

After this last rising, bake the Kolaches for 10 minutes and rotate the pan.  Bake for another 10 to 12 minutes and check to make sure they are not getting too brown.  It’s very important not to over bake them.  (See my photos) Let them rest in the pan for a few minutes and transfer them to a baking rack to cool completely. If you don’t eat every one on the same day 🙂 , I wrapped each one individually in wax paper first, then foil so they could be frozen.  They will store in the freezer wrapped well for about 2 months.