The East Coast may love its bagels and lox, the South may boast of its biscuits and gravy, but Texans have their equivalent, the delicious Czech-Tex Kolache. This recipe comes from my Texas-dwelling, food loving nephew Garrett who worked his way through school as a chef. And dadgum Garrett! These here kolaches are great!
Garrett’s Czech-Tex Kolaches
PREP TIME
1 hour 30 mins
COOK TIME
35 mins
TOTAL TIME
1 hour
INGREDIENTS
Dough:
3 packages dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2¾ cup milk
¾ cups sugar
2 sticks butter
3 egg yolks
3 teaspoons salt
7 cups flour
melted butter for brushing the dough balls
Filling:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
â…“ cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Crumb Topping:
â…“ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1½ teaspoons melted butter
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. water for egg wash
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Put the dry yeast into a glass measuring cup. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (following the directions on the yeast package). Add the teaspoon of sugar into the dissolving yeast and set it aside to proof (i.e., bubble up a bit).
2. Scald your milk in a little pot and leave it to cool. It should be lukewarm when we add it to the dough later.
3. Get out your stand mixer with the dough attachment and cream the sugar and butter together ‘til blended.
4. Add the egg yolks and the salt and mix that real good ‘til blended. Next, add the dissolved yeast and only 1 cup of the flour and mix until this is all nicely blended. Add the lukewarm milk, a little at a time, alternately, with another cup of flour and mix. Then, stir in about 2 more cups of the flour along with the rest of the milk and mix. Lastly, add the remaining flour and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it becomes elastic.
5. Place your dough into a greased mixing bowl and swirl it around a little to grease the surface. Cover with a clean dish towel or cloth and let it rise for 1 ½ hours until light and fluffy.
NOTE FROM GARRETT:
Instead of letting the dough rise for the 1 ½ hours, he makes the dough the night before, covers it with plastic wrap, sticks it in the ice box, and takes it out the next morning. He says the dough has had all night to ferment and that the dough is easier to work with.
6. Grease two sheet pans (or line with parchment paper). Punch the dough down, then turn it out onto a floured surface. Pinch off golf ball-sized portions of the dough and roll them around in your hands until smooth. Place each ball 1 to 1½ inches apart on the greased pans.
7. Brush the dough balls with some melted butter, cover them with a cloth and let them rise for at least 1 hour so they get light and fluffy.
8. Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl.
9. Mix all the crumb topping ingredients together in another small bowl until crumbly.
10. Using your fingers, make an indention in each ball of dough. If the dough is too poufy, you can press it down a bit to flatten it. Fill each of the indented areas with 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture and sprinkle the top with some of the crumb topping.
NOTE
Garrett sometimes adds a teaspoon of apple butter into each indentation along with the cream cheese filling.
11. Let the filled kolaches rise in the pans for another 20 minutes. Give them a quick egg wash.
12. Preheat your oven to 425°. Place the kolaches in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. After 5 minutes you can turn the pans around so all the kolaches cook evenly. Take them out of the oven and brush them with some more melted butter before digging in.