Classic Fruit Kolaches

By Addie

We love making these melt-in-your-mouth goodies. For extra fun, use Christmas cookie cutters instead of a biscuit cutter. —Glen & Sue Ellen Borkholder, Sturgis, Michigan

Ingredients

• ICING:
• 6-7 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 can (12 ounces) raspberry and/or apricot cake and pastry filling
• .............................................................
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4-6 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl, combine 3 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a large saucepan, heat the milk, cubed butter and water to 120°-130°. Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Add egg yolks; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky). Do not knead. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Turn dough onto a floured surface; roll to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place 2 in. apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Using the back of a spoon, make an indentation in the center of each roll. Spoon a heaping teaspoonful of raspberry and/or apricot filling into each indentation. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Combine the confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla, salt and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over rolls. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.

Editor's Note: This recipe was tested with Solo brand cake and pastry filling. Look for it in the baking aisle.
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COMMENTS:

Kolacky, (Czech spelling) are actually smaller versions for the basic Kolac. They are a wonderful pastry mainstay of a Czech household. Typically prune, apricot, poppy seed or cheese fills them. The Solo Brand Pastry and Cake filling is a great filling and come in many fruit and nut flavors. The cheese filling needs to be made at home. Cherry pie filling is too "runny". Possibly it could be thickened with cornstarch and then used. As far as the recipe for the dough is concerned, I did use whole milk for all the liquid. (No Water) I also used 3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks. I have a jar of yeast and I used 1 heaping Tablespoon yeast in place of the 2 packets. My rising times were a bit longer also. I make alot of yeast dough recipes in my stand mixer and I do beat the ingreadients together at first, then add the remaining flour to form a soft dough. I use a small flat bottom glass to make the indentation in which to put the filling. I always add the crumb topping too. (Made by cutting 1 stick butter into 1cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar) The Czechs do not usually frost kolacky.

Yes to pie filling, No to egg yolks!

Can you use regular cherry pie filling?

Can you cut down on the amount of egg yolks by using whole eggs?

Did you know that a word of kolaches is of Czech origin? Kolá?e are a typical Czech dessert. There are many recipes. I would recommend you make the indentation bigger, use a glass so that the edge would be about 1 cm wide. You can fill them with cottage cheese, nut, or poppy seed filling as well. Before baking we decorated them with a crumble (I am not sure if I use the right English expression, sorry.) We make it by mixing butter, flour and confectioner's sugar by fingers. They are even better. Though, the best one are when the filling is inside the pastry. We just roll the dough, cut into squares and pack a spoon of filling inside. Then make them round and pushed them down with a glass. Then that crumble is put on the top.

Be very careful with your liquid temperature, if you add to your yeast mixture and it's near that 130º it will kill your yeast. Let it cool to at least 120º before adding it.