Kolaches

Oh boy, do I have a treat for you today!!!  A pastry so delicious, it deserves a special place on my blog!!  I love this little bite of heaven so much, I wish I could eat them every single day…but, we all know where that could lead 🙂

Spending the majority of my younger years in Texas, my family and I quickly grew to love Kolaches.  Many bakeries sold these incredibly delicious Czech pastries, and they came in several different varieties.  My first choice was always the one with the cream cheese and fruit filling.  As you must know by now, I adore blueberries in just about everything dessert related!!  I found several Kolache recipes online and put my own spin on it by adding my own blueberry compote recipe (among a few other variations)…and the result is seriously delicious!!  Adding a sweet cream cheese mixture and a streusel topping too makes this sweet bun incredibly tasty.  Making dough takes time and patience, but in the end, it is always worth it.  Nothing smells quite like bread baking in your oven, so go ahead…spend a few hours making these treats for your family…or just for you…Because you’re worth it 🙂

Important note…I used a kitchen scale to measure the dough once I started shaping it into balls.  It really helps to ensure the Kolaches will be all the same size and will bake evenly. It really is an essential tool for bakers! 🙂

 

 

Gather all of your ingredients, but leave the stick of butter for the streusel in the fridge until ready to use.Place the dough into your buttered bowl, making sure to turn it over once to cover it with butter. Cover with plastic wrap.This is how the dough will look after it has risen for an hour.You can mix your cream cheese filling by hand if the cream cheese is soft enough.Use a pastry cutter to make the streusel topping. Keep it in the fridge until ready to sprinkle on the buns.First rising of the balls of dough.Flatten the balls with the palm of your hand.Make a well in each one to hold the filling.First rising of the filled buns.Ready to bake!!How gorgeous are these?They are sooo good 🙂

 

Kolaches

Makes: 20 Kolaches Prep time including rising: 3 hours Bake time: 22 to 24 minutes

Ingredients

  Dough

1 tablespoon quick rise yeast

1/3 cup sugar/divided

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon salt

4 and 1/2 to 5 cups all purpose flour, plus more to flour your board

4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter

2 large eggs, beaten

5 tablespoons melted and cooled unsalted butter (to brush on the buns before baking)

Blueberry compote

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Cream cheese filling

8 ounces softened full fat cream cheese

1 egg yolk

1/4 sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Streusel topping

1/2 cup very cold butter cut into cubes

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

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.

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