AUTHENTIC CZECH KOLACHES

By efriend

Ingredients

• For the filling:
• Ingredients
• 2/3 cup milk (2% or higher is best)
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large egg yolk
• 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
• 6 prunes
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 4 scoops very thick apricot preserves
• 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoons powdered sugar
• For the egg wash:
• 1 beaten egg
• splash of heavy cream (or milk)

Preparation

Step 1

First: make the 3 different fillings. If you want all of the kolaches to have the same flavor, triple one of the filling recipes.
For the prune filling: combine the prunes in a small saucepan with the honey, and add enough water to barely cover the prunes. Boil, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Mash them with a fork as they cook. They're done when most of the water is evaporated and it's thick like jam. Set aside to cool.
For the apricot filling: no work necessary! Just have the apricot preserves ready in a small bowl.
For the cream cheese filling: stir together the room temp cream cheese with the powdered sugar until smooth. Set aside.
Next, make the kolaches: warm the milk in a microwave-safe bowl for about 30 seconds until lukewarm. The target temperature is 110 degrees. Once it's at precisely 110, add the yeast, sugar and 2/3 cup of the flour. Mix together well and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
In another bowl, add the melted butter. Let cool briefly before stirring in the egg yolks. Add this to the yeast mixture and mix well. Add the remaining flour, salt, and mix very well well.
Next, knead the dough for 10 minutes: The best way to knead is to smear the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, and then fold the dough back onto itself from the side with your other hand. Lightly flour the board and your hands as you go. At the end of 10 minutes, the dough will be soft, supple, and not sticky at all.
Grease a bowl with cooking spray and add the dough. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (you can do this in the oven using the 'proof' setting). (At the end of this rise, you could cover it and put it in the fridge to use the following day. It will deflate, but it's okay).
Next, you want to evenly divide the dough into 12 equal portions. I do this by weighing the dough, and dividing it by 12. Roll each dough ball into a perfect circle (see photo).
Line a 9" pie plate with parchment paper, and arrange the dough balls in it. At this point, I press gently on the dough to make a slightly oblong shape instead of a perfect circle (see photo).
Let the dough rise until doubled (you can do this in the oven using the 'proof' setting).
Preheat the oven to 375.
Once the dough balls have doubled in size, use your fingers to make indentations for the fillings. Go deeper than the indentations seen in the photos (the dough continued to rise while I was taking photos, making the indentations fill in slightly).
Next, stir together the egg and splash of heavy cream to use as the egg wash for the rolls.
Divide the jam fillings between the kolaches, and then brush with the egg wash gently (try not to get egg wash on the fillings).
Bake the kolaches for 18-21 minutes, until nicely golden brown. Use a toothpick inserted into the center kolache to ensure the rolls are done. (In the testing process for this recipe, I accidentally under-baked a batch and the kolaches sunk in the middle, so make sure the inner kolaches are fully baked before removing from the oven).
Let cool slightly, and then tear apart and serve.