Cream Cheese Kolaches *New and Improved!!

*** I recently stumbled upon this website and was absolutely blown away at the awesome recipes this transplanted Texan has developed. Like me, Homesick Texan, grew up eating kolaches in Texas. Only, she remembers them from West, Texas, a little town between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Waco. I thought I'd give her recipe a try because, although yummy, I've been thinking the dough in mine is a little to stiff. To my great pleasure, these are closer to the kolaches I remember, the dough lighter and fluffier.***

I developed this recipe based on a my memory of the kolaches we used to get around Weimar/Schulenberg, Texas when I was a kid. I pulled together about 4 different recipes to try to get as close as possible. They look more like the kolaches we see here in Prague, but they taste more like what I remember from Texas. Thus, the perfect blend of old and new, east and west... ok, I'll stop now. Now for a short Czech lesson: koláč (pronounced kolach) is the actual name of the pastry we're talking about here, which means pie, cake, or tart. To pluralize kolac, you add an e to the end to get koláče. So, when we say kolaches, we are technically double pluralizing it, like kolacheses. But who really cares? Czech lesson over. I'm sorry to have wasted 30 seconds of your precious life.

1 package of active dry yeast
1 cup of warm milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup of melted butter, divided
1 teaspoon of salt

In a large bowl, combine yeast, warm milk, sugar and one cup of flour. Cover and let it rise until doubled in size - about 30-45 minutes.



Beat together eggs, 1/2 cup of melted butter (reserve 1/4 cup for brushing on the pastry) and salt.



Add egg mixture to yeast mixture and blend.



Stir in about two more cups of flour, 1/2 cup at a time. The dough should be soft and moist.





Knead dough for about 10 minutes on floured surface.



Put dough in a greased bowl and let rise covered until doubled in size—about an hour.



After dough has risen, punch it down and pull off egg-sized pieces.



In your hands, roll pieces into balls and then flatten to about three inches in diameter. Brush with melted butter.



Place flattened pieces on a greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise again for another half-hour.



After second rising, with your finger gently make an indention in the center of the dough (be careful not to flatten it too much) and fill with one tablespoon of cream cheese (or fruit) filling and sprinkle with posypka (recipes below).





Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Brush with melted butter when you take them out of the oven and serve warm. Makes 18-24 rolls.





Posypka:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all ingredients until crumbly.



Cream Cheese Filling:
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese (don't be afraid of the cottage cheese, I hate it by itself but love it in these things)
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup sugar

Blend all ingredients in food processor. Refrigerate until needed.



*Fruit (Apricot) Filling: In a small saucepan combine 1 cup snipped dried apricots (or your choice of another dried fruit) and enough water to cover fruit by 1 inch. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 10 to 15 minutes or until apricots are very soft. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid. In a blender container or food processor bowl place the softened apricots, reserved cooking liquid, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Cover; blend or process until smooth. Scrape down sides as necessary.



*Sausage Kolache Variation: Wrap the three-inch flattened piece of dough around a two-inch piece of sausage (and a couple of pickled jalapeno slices if you like). Bake according to directions above.