#kolaches

Baking my way through 50 states:

Honey blackberry kolaches with cream cheese filling 🍯

“Kolach” is a Slavic term for a variety of traditional baked goods from Central and Eastern Europe. The name comes from the Old Slavonic word kolo, meaning "wheel" or "circle". Koláče are often served during special occasions like Christmas, Easter, weddings, and Dożynki. The term can refer to a sweet, circular bread, or a Czech and Slovak sweet pastry. 

A kolach, from the Czech and Slovak koláč (plural koláče, diminutive koláčky, meaning "cake/pie"), is a type of sweet pastry that holds a portion of filling surrounded by puffy yeast dough. Common filling flavors include tvaroh (a type of cottage cheese), fruit jam, poppy seeds, or povidla (prune jam). In the United States, the word kolache is sometimes used as the singular rather than as the plural, and the letter "s" is often added to the end of the word kolache to form "kolaches", which is a double plural.

Traditional Czech koláče are used in villages during feasts as a treat or at important events, such as weddings. They are usually small, with a diameter of no more than 8 cm (3.1 in) and with only one type of filling, sprinkled with sweet crumbs or sugar.

I made cherry koláče for my husband (and, of course, myself) for Valentine’s Day. I used cherry preserve filling and sprinkled them with streusel topping. I used the same dough recipe as when I made buchty for St. Blaise’s day and when I made the “Easter” doves.

The recipe I used is from My Czech Heritage Cookbook by LaVina Vanorny-Barcus. The author’s grandmother used this recipe to make buchty, cinnamon rolls and koláče.

I followed the recipe through the first rising, then divided the dough into 18 balls. They should weigh about 1.5 oz.

Then I let them rise for another 30 minutes.

I used a measuring cup with a 2 inch diameter to press them into shape. And brushed them with an egg wash. I filled them with cherry preserves and sprinkled them with streusel topping. See a them on tray above.

I baked them for 20 minutes at 350°F.

I recommend Petra Kupská’s directions on how to assemble them, and I used her streusel topping recipe.