Sausage and Cheese Kolaches

So after an extended summer hiatus, I’m back online and ready to post a few new recipes I’ve been playing around with.

Since we’ve been here in Kazakhstan, I’ve decided to try my hand at some baking.  I’ve never baked many yeast breads.  But now that I’ve begun to use yeast, I’m hooked.  I would say my use of the tiny organism has been infectious.  So you could say I’ve been baking so much that I have a yeast infection (sorry, horrible pun).  So far I've made pizza, bagels, yeast dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, kolaches, focaccia, and apple bread.  

My favorite so far has been the kolaches, so I’m going to share this one.

The Kolache is perhaps one of the greatest breakfast pastries known to man.   To the uninitiated a kolache is yeast bread, filled with fruit or meat and usually eaten for breakfast.  Throughout Houston a donut shop will not succeed if it chooses not to sell kolache (Krispy Creme has come and gone in the Houston Area).  When I was working for UPS my morning routine would almost always include a stop at Shipley’s Do-nuts on W. Mount Houston for a sausage and cheese kolache and a cinnamon twist.

Then there is Hwy. 70 between Columbus and Austin.  On that stretch of road there is both Hruzka’s and Weikel’s.  Both are Czech bakeries are known for their kolaches, meat and fruit filled.  Needless to say sometimes we will take that route to Austin from Houston, just to stop at one of those two bakeries

My grandma used to make the fruit filled variants when I was little, but personally I’ve always been a meat kolache man.  Fortunately here in Almaty, thanks to Bekker’s (the German Importer/Butcher), there are plenty of good sausages here.  I chose sausages that reminded me of little smokies, but in all reality you can use your favorite sausage.

Ingredients:

For the Yeast Starter

2 ½ Tablespoons yeast

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup warm water (approx. 110°)

1 cup warm milk (approx. 110°)

The Dough:

2 egg yolks

¼ butter softened

¼ vegetable oil

¼ warm milk

1 ½ teaspoon salt

2 ½ cups of flour

The Filling:

20 little smoked sausages

American Cheese (optional)

Sliced Jalapeños (optional)

Process:

Mix the yeast, flour and sugar thoroughly in a very large bowl.  Add warm milk and water and blend until it is all incorporated in a sticky ubber-wet dough.  Cover and let rise for an hour and a half.

Before

After 1.5 hourse

Uncover and add all of the ingredients under the dough heading.  Using the dough hook on you mixer blend until the dough becomes a solid ball in the center of the bowl (approx. 7-9 minutes).

If you don’t have a mixer, blend the ingredients with a metal spoon, knead for 5 minutes on a floured surface until the dough becomes elastic and no longer sticks to your fingers.

Cover and allow to rise for another hour or two.*

After Kneading or Mixing

After Rising for 2 hours

While the dough is rising prepare your sausages.  Remove them from the packaging and remove any excess liquid.  Cut the American cheese slices so you can wrap each sausage completely with the cheese. 

Little Sausages and Processed Cheese 

Lay the sausage on top of the cheese

Cheese tenderly embracing the sausage

A pile of cheesy sausage

After the dough has risen prepare a plate of flour to keep your hands thoroughly floured while you form the little balls of happiness.  Also grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.

A well floured hand

With your hands thoroughly floured break the roll the dough into golf ball sized balls.  

A lovely little dough ball 

Once the ball is ready press the cheese wrapped sausage in the middle and begin to pull the dough over the sausage.  

All systems go!  Time to make a kolache!

Roll it in your hands until the dough completely covers the sausage and cheese.  Once the sausage is completely encapsulated place the little dough ball on the cookie sheet.

Sealed, formed, and ready for the baking sheet!

All lined up ready to go!

Once all of the kolaches are formed and on the cookie sheets and using a pastry brush (or your fingers) cover the tops of the dough balls with the egg wash.

1 egg & 1/4 cup water

Painted up like some godless Jezebel

Pre-heat the oven to 400°. 

Allow the kolaches to rise for another 30 minutes to an hour on the cookie sheet.  Then slip them into the oven and bake them for 15 or until the tops are golden brown. 

Nicely risen as they are placed in the oven

When they are golden brown, immediatly take them off of the cookie sheet and cool them on a wire rack.

Cooling down

These are best right out of the oven, but it’s not realistic to make them for breakfast. You would have to wake up a 4 in the morning to get them ready for an 8:00 breakfast.  So I like to make them on Sunday, and then keep them in the refrigerator for the following week for a quick and easy breakfast.  Or they can also be frozen for about a month.

A yummy cross section

*the amount of time that you let them rise can be adjusted to the type of breading you prefer.  For a denser kolache (like Kolache Factory) use the minimum rise times, for fluffier bread (like Shipley’s) use the longer rise times.