What in the world is a kolache?
Kristin Emery/For the Observer-Reporter
Chef Ashley Whitmore holds her Eggs Benedict kolache at the Line Hotel in Austin, Texas.
Kristin Emery/For the Observer-Reporter
Eggs Benedict kolache at The Line Hotel in Austin, Texas
Kristin Emery/For the Observer-Reporter
Vegan kolaches from Capital City Bakery.
Kristin Emery/For the Observer-Reporter
Ham and cheese kolache from Henbit.
When it comes to Eastern European food, I thought I’d sampled it all. From pierogies to halushki and goulash to halupki, you name it and I’ve probably enjoyed eating it.
So imagine my surprise when I found the most delicious Eastern European creation on a trip to – of all places – Texas. The first time I visited Austin last year, I stumbled upon that state’s beloved breakfast treat: the kolache, a scrumptious bread-dough creation filled with almost anything you can imagine.
I loved them so much that during a recent return visit to Austin, I set out to discover what exactly these delightful little baked confections are and where they originated. This, of course, required some tasty research.
The kolache (pronounced ko-lah-chee) turns out to be a Czechoslovakian creation that originally consisted of a slightly sweetened yeast dough filled with cottage cheese, poppy seed, apricot or prune butter (levkar).
So, how did they wind up becoming such a big part of the Texas breakfast menu? The mid-1800s saw a wave a Czech immigrants to Galveston, Texas, for better work opportunities and they brought their kolache recipes with them. That Czech population grew and spread to central Texas where they now hold an iconic status from Galveston to Austin to Waco to Dallas.
The word kolache traditionally means sweet, fruit-filled pastries.
“The savory are kolobnik, but colloquially, everyone’s starting to just call them kolaches,” said Ashley Whitmore, the executive pastry chef and head baker at The Line Hotel in Austin.
Those savory versions run the gamut stuffed with everything from sausage to barbeque, various cheeses and vegetables and even tofu. Whitmore is the perfect person to teach me about this Texas treat since she hails from Houston. She’s been a pastry chef for a dozen years and took on the lead job at The Line when they opened last year.
“The Czech immigrant population in Texas was quite large especially after Texas got annexed to the union,” Whitmore said. “My family was actually part of that wave. My great grandma used to make kolaches and noodles and all sorts of things.”
She said kolaches can be sweet or savory but the base is a yeasted dough. You’ll find kolaches in bakeries, at restaurants and in food trucks. Most folks in Texas enjoy them for breakfast but you can really dine on a kolache any time of day.
The version served at The Line’s coffee shop is, “quite whimsical and not necessarily traditional,” Whitmore said with a laugh, noting that it’s not her great grandmother’s kolache. Her eggs Benedict kolache may not be traditional, but it’s absolutely delicious. How did she create the recipe?
“Our original food and beverage director asked for an eggs Benedict kolache and that was actually part of my interview process here was to execute it and figure out how to make it work,” Whitmore said. “After five or six test runs, I came across this application which is a soft boiled egg and stabilized Hollandaise sauce so that doesn’t break when it gets hot. We assemble it every day and make it fresh.”
The combination of the slightly sweet dough, the gooey egg yolk and the Hollandaise is music to your mouth and Whitmore nailed the recipe and landed the job.
That kolache recipe isn’t even the craziest version I found in Austin, and Whitmore says there’s a cult Instagram kolache following around the world.
“The industry really is heavy on Instagram and we all hashtag,” she said. “It’s a really cool way of communicating baking innovations across the world. I follow bakers in Tasmania and Germany and now that I’ve started doing this funky kolache, I’ve noticed more and more people in the states are doing kind of cool kolaches.”
If Texas is not on your travel itinerary anytime soon, perhaps you can take a drive to 3rd Street in Beaver to visit Cafe Kolache. The owner spent a decade in Houston and fell in love with kolaches. When she moved to Southwestern Pennsylvania, she brought the tasty treats with her and now has a huge following among oil and gas workers in the area who hail from the Lone Star State.
Stop by and sample breakfast, lunch and dessert kolaches stuffed with everything from jalapeno and cheese to spinach and feta along with traditional poppy seed and even a chocolate peanut butter version.
Ashley Whitmore provided this recipe from her great grandmother’s Czech housewives’ cookbook from the late 1800s.
Kolaches
*Yeast starter:
½ c. Warm milk
5 t. Dry yeast
2T. Sugar
½ c. Flour
Prepare yeast starter first by dissolving dry yeast in warm milk. Add sugar and flour and mix well. Cover and set aside to rise.
*Dough:
½ c. Butter
2 eggs, separated
1 pint cream (whipping cream is best)
Lemon rind grated from 1 lemon
1 ½ t. Salt
6 c. Sifted flour
Cream butter. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add yeast starter, beaten egg white, cream, lemon rind, salt and flour. Work dough with a mixing spoon until spoon stays clean of the dough (about 30 min.) Set aside to rise. When double in size, cut off tablespoon size pieces of dough and shape into slightly flattened balls. Place on greased baking pan, make a shallow dent and fill. Let rise again and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until done. (To have filling inside, flatten dough, fill and bring edges together.)
*Filling
Dried Fruit (Prunes, apricots, apples)
Combine 1 lb. of fruit and 1/3 c. water. Cook on low heat until tender. Mash and sweeten with ½ c. sugar. Add cinnamon, grated lemon rind, nutmeg or ginger to taste.
Cottage Cheese
Mix 1 c. drained cottage cheese (must be dry), 2 T. flour, ¼ c. sugar, ¼ t. nutmeg and raisins.