A Czech Lesson

PROJECT PATISSERIE: Adventure #5

I love fancy-pants pastry. It’s true. But sometimes I just want to put down the crème brulee torch and make something rustic and comforting without the use of swanky kitchen gadgets or complicated components. Unlike the past few projects, the only thing an extra set of hands is needed for this week is to help eat the finished pastries. Maybe it’s a shot in the dark but I’m guessing volunteers to help eat pastries are far more numerous that those willing to risk third degree burns to help mix molten sugar into whipped egg whites!

When learning a new language, most people want to know how to say the expletives first- and the Czechs do have some colorful ones. While the first Czech word my husband ever learned was “beer” (the expletives came second), let this be your first Czech word: “kolac,” pronounced “koh-lah-tch.”

A kolac is a round, traditional Czechoslovak peasant pastry made from delectably moist dough. It’s versatile in that the dough is very lightly sweetened so it lends itself nicely to sweet or savory fillings. Dessert kolace (the plural of “kolac” and pronounced koh-la-tch-eh) are typically filled with a fruit butter of some kind- plum butter is common- but ground poppy seeds, walnut paste, or the exceedingly delicious cream cheese and farmer’s cheese fillings are also widely enjoyed. As if that weren’t delicious enough, the pastries are then finished off with a sprinkle of streusel topping- a perfect companion to a cup of coffee.

The word “kolac” is Czech for “awesome.” Ok, not really, but it ought to be because that’s what they are. I feel so strongly about this that I think I may write to the Czech President Milos Zeman and suggest the change.

Regarding the recipe, allow me to preface what I’m about to say with this: the secretive Free Masons have nothing on a baker with a good recipe. We’re famous for being reticent or even downright evasive when asked to share it. If pressed, some of us may even alter it before giving it away. Case in point: my husband’s grandmother made amazing cinnamon rolls that are still a part of the Walldroff Christmas tradition. When her daughters-in-law asked for the recipe she happily gave it to them. It was only after she had passed away and everyone got together to make them did the women in the family realize that they all had different recipes!

I suspect that this is the case with this kolac recipe. The woman who I got it from is the daughter of Czech immigrants. She claims that this is her mother’s recipe and how she learned to make kolace while growing up in Texas. It all sounds very legitimate, but while I don’t want to point fingers, something’s up.

The recipe calls for an amazing 5 to 6 cups of flour, plus two whole eggs. If I were to use this recipe again, I would cut the flour down to half and substitute two egg yolks for the 2 whole eggs, as I suspect that in addition to the heaping mountain of flour, the egg whites were a contributing factor to the dryness of the dough. In the end though, while they’re not authentic Czech kolace, they’re not bad. Whatever their shortcomings, they certainly didn’t stop me from eating way too many of them in the name of research!

Kolac recipe:

Unlike previous recipes, these can be made the day that you’d like to serve them. They also freeze well.

In a small bowl combine 1 ½  tablespoons of active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and 3 tablespoons warm milk (about 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit.) Cover with a clean dish towel and set in a warm location for 10 minutes.

While those ingredients are doing their thing, combine 1 cup of warm milk, 2 eggs -or for the intrepid baker just the egg yolks, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, the same amount of salt, and ½ cup of sugar. Mix them together and blend in the yeast mixture.

Measure out 5-6 cups of flour and slowly start mixing it a cup at a time into the ingredients in the bowl. As previously noted I only added about 2-3 cups. After the third cup the dough was getting quite hard and yelling “mercy!” so I stopped trying to force feed it more flour.

The chef is then directed to place the whole kitten-caboodle on a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand until no longer sticky. The problem with this step is that by this point the dough was not sticky at all, too dense to knead, and almost too hard to properly rise. Next time, I’ll place the milk-egg-butter-vanilla-salt-sugar-yeast mixture on a lightly floured work surface and knead in- instead of mix in- 2-3 cups of flour. This will give me more control over the consistency of the dough. Not to beat a dead horse over this flour thing, but keep in mind that the dough was tough after only 3 cups of flour. 5-6 cups would have made the dough akin to a little boulder.

Once the dough is ready, place it in a clean bowl, dust the top with flour, cover with a dish towel and let it rise in a warm location for about an hour.

After the hour has elapsed, punch down the dough and divide it into 32 pieces. Roll them into balls and flatten. Place the flattened dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet, cover with a dish towel and let it rise 30-45 minutes.

While waiting on the dough, start on the filling. I’m including the recipe for the cream cheese filling, though it’s just one of a myriad of possibilities. Combine 16 ounces of softened cream cheese with 2 egg yolks, ½ cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix until smooth.

In addition to the filling, traditional kolace also have a streusel topping called a “posypka” [poh-sip-kah]. This is made by combining ½ cup of sugar, ¼ cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of melted butter and scrunching (an official culinary term) them together with your fingers until the mixture resembles a dry meal.

After the 30-45 minutes have lapsed, flatten the centers of the dough with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in flour- this will form a nice little depression for the filling. Whisk one egg and brush the rims of the dough with it. Fill the depression with the cream cheese filling- either by using a pastry bag with a plain tip, a ziplock bag with the corner clipped off, or a butter knife. Sprinkle the top of each filled kolac with the posypka topping.

While the oven is preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, let the kolace rest another 10-15 minutes. Bake for 10-15 minutes, cool, and enjoy!

Kolace remind me of my grandmother, our summer cottage in

Moravia, and all things Czech!