Koláče
Koláče are Czech and Moravian yeast pastries baked for generations for weddings, village feasts and Sunday coffee. They are round buns of soft yeast dough with a hollow filled with sweet curd cheese or plum butter, topped with crumble. Large koláče are baked too, with curd cheese, poppy seed and plum laid side by side — the chodský koláč of western Bohemia is one example. This version makes small individual pastries, easier at home. They are relatives of the Silesian kołacz, made as small individual buns.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Starter 10 min
- Dough 15 min
- Rising (make the fillings meanwhile) 60 min
- Shaping 25 min
- Proving 30 min
- Baking two trays 40 min
- Cooling 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneStart the yeast
Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm milk with a spoonful of sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour. Leave 10 minutes until frothy.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter, melted · 3 pcs egg plus 2 yolks · 1 tsp grated lemon zest · ½ tsp salt
Knead the dough
Add the rest of the flour and sugar, the egg, yolks, lemon zest, salt and the melted, cooled butter. Knead 10 minutes until smooth, soft and coming away from your hand.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter, melted · 3 pcs egg plus 2 yolks · 1 tsp grated lemon zest · ½ tsp salt
Leave to rise
Cover and leave somewhere warm for 60 minutes, until doubled. Make the fillings and crumble meanwhile.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter, melted · 3 pcs egg plus 2 yolks · 1 tsp grated lemon zest · ½ tsp salt
Make fillings and crumble
Mix the curd cheese with the sugar, yolk and vanilla until smooth. For the crumble, rub the flour, sugar and cold butter together with your fingers into coarse crumbs.
Ingredients: 250 g medium-fat curd cheese, smooth · 40 g sugar for the cheese · 1 pcs egg yolk for the cheese · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 150 g thick plum butter
Shape the rounds
Divide the dough (about 980 g) into 16 balls of about 60 g. Flatten each into a 9 cm disc and press the centre with the base of a glass to make a hollow with a clear rim.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter, melted · 3 pcs egg plus 2 yolks · 1 tsp grated lemon zest · ½ tsp salt
Even 60 g balls — easiest to weigh them.Add the filling
Set the rounds on two lined trays, 8 per tray, about 4 cm apart. Fill half the hollows with a heaped tablespoon of cheese (about 39 g — the whole mixture weighs about 310 g) and the other half with a tablespoon of plum butter (about 19 g).
Ingredients: 250 g medium-fat curd cheese, smooth · 40 g sugar for the cheese · 1 pcs egg yolk for the cheese · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 150 g thick plum butter
Half with cheese, half with plum.Top and prove
Brush the rims with beaten egg and scatter the crumble over the filling. Cover and leave 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C.
Ingredients: 60 g flour for the crumble · 40 g cold butter for the crumble · 40 g sugar for the crumble · 1 pcs egg for glazing
Crumble on the filling, egg on the rims.Bake and cool
Bake one tray at a time at 180°C for 18–20 minutes, until the rims are golden, keeping the second tray somewhere cool meanwhile so it does not over-prove. With a fan oven you can bake both at once at 170°C. Cool on a rack 20 minutes — the cheese filling sets as it cools.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 70 g sugar · 80 g butter, melted · 3 pcs egg plus 2 yolks · 1 tsp grated lemon zest · ½ tsp salt
Before you start
With poppy seed
The third traditional filling is poppy seed: boil 100 g of ground poppy seed with 100 ml of milk and 50 g of sugar until thick. Cool before filling.
The curd cheese
The cheese must be thick and smooth — wet, lumpy cheese runs out of the hollow as it bakes. If it is moist, squeeze it in a cloth before mixing.
Storage
Keep cheese koláče in the fridge up to 3 days, plum ones covered at room temperature up to 2 days. They freeze for 2 months.
