Big Bend Eats
by Carolyn Brown Zniewski
T
he kolacy or kolache is a circu-
lar bread or roll whose origin is
the Baltic countries. Kolache is
an Anglicized version of the name,
which originally meant wheel in its
home languages in the Ukraine,
Serbia, the Czech Republic, Hungary
and throughout the entire region.
Originally it was a single round loaf
about 10 inches in diameter, baked in
celebration of Epiphany and continu-
ing until the first day of Lent.
It shows up in many places as King
Cake for Mardi Gras.
Sometime after the 15th Century
housewives started making small
round cakes we call sweet rolls as gifts
to be shared during the season of
Epiphany. They were filled with a
sweet fruit filling, made from dried
stewed fruit, clabbered milk (cottage
cheese) or poppy seeds. Some grand-
mas even today save seeds from last
year’s crop of poppies to grow the right
kind of seeds for the filling – tradition-
ally opium poppies. If you want a
poppy seed filling for your rolls I sug-
gest you buy them by the jarful at the
super market. Kolache coffee cakes
and rolls were traditionally baked in
the winter when the stove was stoked
all day and fresh fruit was not avail-
able.
Until immigrants from the Balkans
brought them to the United States
about 1840, kolaches were sweet and
used only four different fillings: prune,
apricot, poppy seed and cheese. In
Texas, kolaches got their first sausage
filling. When Bohemians settled here
they started making the Old World
favorite with Texas style. Voila! the
sausage kolache, the perfect meal on
horseback. For many years Texas was
the only place that had a sausage fill-
ing, but in the last 10 years the habit
has spread throughout the Midwest,
where Bohemians also settled. Sausage
kolaches can be found as far north as
Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they
are sold at Kramarczuk Sausage Co.
But the Sausage Kolache Capital of
the World is right here in Caldwell,
Texas.
26
Cenizo
Kolacy or Kolache
1 pkg dry yeast
½ cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ cup evaporated milk or cream
6 Tablespoons sugar
¼ cup melted butter
¼ cup melted shortening
3 egg yolks
½ teaspoon salt
4 ½ cups flour
Stir yeast, water and sugar together
and set aside until it starts to bubble
(about 15 minutes). Mix together all
but the flour, then add to yeast mix-
ture. Slowly stir in flour. It will be a soft
dough.
Knead it on a floured board until
smooth, about 5 minutes. Shape into a
ball.
Put it in an oiled bowl, turn to oil all
sides, cover. Set in a warm spot until it
is doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Stir down. Divide in half. Each half
should make about 24 rolls. You can
braid half the dough and bake it as a
single loaf. It will make a nice challa
loaf. Put the braid in a 9” cake pan,
cover and let rise until double in size.
Brush with a little beaten egg white
and sprinkle with green, yellow and
purple sugar to celebrate Mardi Gras
or sprinkle with plain sugar for any-
time. Sprinkle about ½ the posepka
(see below) evenly over the bread. Bake
at 375’ for 45 – 60 minutes until nicely
brown.
For the kolaches, divide half the
dough into 24 parts. Shape into balls
and flatten to a 4” in diameter circle.
Put the rolls on large cookie sheets.
Cover and let rise until doubled in size
(40 minutes to an hour.) Make a
depression in the center of each roll.
Fill with one Tablespoon filling. Brush
with beaten egg white, sprinkle with
posepka and bake at 375’ for 15 – 20
minutes.
Posepka
For top of rolls
Mix together until crumbly:
6 Tablespoons flour
First Quarter 2016
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons soft butter
In Grandma’s recipe the fruit fill-
ings were made by stewing dried fruit.
I suggest you use an all fruit spread.
For poppy seed filling, combine ½
cup evaporated milk or cream, ½ cup
sugar and 1 cup poppy seeds. Cook
over low heat to thicken.
For cheese filling, combine ¼ cup
flour and 1/3 cup sugar with 12 oz.
cottage cheese, 1 egg yolk, 1
Tablespoon butter and a pinch of salt.
Cook over low heat to thicken.
For traditional Texas fare, roll a link
sausage in the dough.
This takes several hours, but much
of the time is waiting for the dough to
rise. Give these delicious Boho treats a
try. Perfect for a day at home. This
recipe came from Greg Curtiss, given
to him by his co-worker Julia Apodaca.
They work at The Michael & Susan
Dell Center for Healthy Living in
Austin. It is Julia’s mother’s original
recipe.
Making these rolls will make you
feel like an accomplished baker.