Easy Kolacky Recipe - Polish Christmas Cookies You Need To Try! (2024)

FAQs

What is kolaczki made of? ›

A kolacky is a bite-sized pastry with Czech origins. The rich dough (which is made with cream cheese, butter, and flour) can feature different fillings, but jam is one of the most popular choices.

In fact, this staple of Central Texan gastronomy actually hails from Czech Republic, where a koláček (the diminutive form of koláč, pronounced kolach; plural koláčky) is a round yeast pastry with a sweet filling in the center!

If properly frozen, you can freeze unfrosted cookies for up to 12 months. If cookies are frosted, they can be stored frozen for up to three months.

Place dough seam side down in a lightly greased large bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Unrisen dough can be refrigerated for at least 8 hours or up to 16 hours; let dough sit at room temperature for 1 hour before shaping.)

The most common flavors are: prune, poppy seed, cream cheese, and apricot. I've also seen blueberry, cherry, and lemon. I'm willing to talk about savory kolaches with eggs, bacon and sausage, but honestly, I didn't grow up on those.

The kolache (pronounced ko-LAH-chee) entered the American repertory in the mid-1800s, soon after immigrants from Central Europe settled in the hills and prairies of central and south-central Texas. The region was once home to more than 200 Czech-dominant communities.

Kolache is the plural form of kolach, which indicates one, single pastry despite many Texans still adding an extra “s” to indicate many “kolaches” (plural).

Klobasneks are much more commonly known as kolaches in Texas, but should not be confused with traditional Czech kolaches, which are also popular and are known by the same name. Klobasneks are similar in style to sausage rolls, but the meat is wrapped in kolache dough.

A kolach, from the Czech and Slovak koláč (plural koláče, diminutive koláčky, meaning "cake/pie"), is a type of sweet pastry that holds a portion of fruit surrounded by puffy yeast dough. Common filling flavors include tvaroh (a type of cottage cheese), fruit jam, poppy seeds, or povidla (prune jam).

Can you leave Christmas cookies out overnight? ›

Curious how long cookies last at room temperature? Most homemade cookies will maintain their taste and texture for up to 3 days. If you leave them out for too long, the cookies begin to harden or dry out. To prevent cookies from becoming stale, cover them with plastic wrap or keep in an airtight container.

Crisp, dense cookies like shortbread, biscotti, and snowballs are sturdy enough to hold up for the long haul. Be sure to let your biscotti logs cool completely after the first baking so they'll slice without crumbling.

Kolache dough is enriched with A LOT of butter and A LOT of egg. It is a pretty sticky dough and because of that, I find that it benefits from a long overnight rise in the refrigerator. This makes the dough much easier to handle, shape and work with so that it is not over-floured and tough.

If kept at room temperature, kolaches should be eaten within 24 hours. Kolaches may be kept frozen and well wrapped for up to 3 weeks.

In appearance, they resemble a danish, but there is a difference: danish dough is light and flaky whereas a kolache tends to be slightly more dense and sweet with the dough being similar to brioche.

For the dough (makes 16 kolaches):

Combine milk, butter and eggs together in measuring cup (will be lumpy) Combine dry ingredients (ie, flour, sugar, yeast, salt) in the bowl of a standing mixer then add milk mixture from step 1 and knead for 2 minutes on low speed.

The traditional 'big three' flavors are apricot, prune, and cheese. South Texans think of meat fillings when they think of kolaches, but traditionally kolaches are only filled with fruit. Dough filled with meat are klobasnek, wrapped in flakier, more buttery dough than the one used to make kolaches.

Originally, the kolaczki is said to be from Poland (though its exact origin is unknown), and are popularly seen around the holidays. They seem to be just as popular in Cleveland, where we learned that they are known as Kiffles in Hungarian.