Kolacky

A couple summers ago my daughter and I went to the Kolacky festival in Montgomery, MN. I was expecting full-on filled-bun festivities – but there was only one stand with the goods. Luckily, there was a beer garden, some wicked horseshoe competition, and we had a blast (and some good Czech sausage).

My kolacky quest had begun.

The first step was a brioche dough – but I’ve never met a brioche I like and bailed on that approach. The good thing to come out of the brioche phase was the discovery of a roll filled with crème fraiche and topped with sugar (thank you Ms. Silverton).

Step two involved screwing around with the basic brioche idea – my main problem with brioche may be the egginess, and the fact there’s never really any flavor. I increased the fermentation flavor with a big chunk of the flour going into a sponge, and decided to skip the whole eggs. I have found that egg yolks solve many problems – including strength issues. A rich dough full of butter and sugar needs some help, and the lecithin in egg yolks does the trick.

Phase Three was solving the filling issue. My friend makes a great poppy filling, but it’s very stiff. Sticking it in the middle of the buns had this weird volcano effect – the soft dough puffed up and pushed the filling out. I needed something softer that would melt into the buns. Enter the crème fraiche. Mix that stuff with this poppy filling and we’re in business.

So, the kolacky is officially in the line-up of Sun Street Breads, I’m super excited.

The whole spelling question will be a topic for another day, along with the great cookie-style kolache of the Range…