Daring Bakers: Raspberry and Cream Cheese Kolache

I’m not sure about other parts of the country, but anyone from central Texas isn’t wondering what a kolache is.  As a kid I have fond memories of stopping in West, Texas , a Czech community on I-35 in between Austin and Dallas, for kolaches.  I made them once in college, right when I was beginning to really enjoy baking, but I haven’t made them since, which is a shame!  I was really excited to have the opportunity to try them again this month.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Kolaches | Hottie Biscotti

The September Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Lucie from ChezLucie. She challenged us to make a true Czech treat –Kolaches!

We were given the option of making 3 different types of kolaches.  I’d never heard of the first two types, Prague Kolach and Kolache from Chodsko.  Both looked so beautiful but were larger scale, more like a cake or tart, and would be better for a group breakfast.  The Moravian kolaches are the type I am more familiar with and they lend themselves better to sharing and enjoying over a few days since they are individual servings.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Kolaches | Hottie Biscotti

My favorite kind of kolache are cream cheese and fruit filled.  The recipe we were given for this month used a quark filling, something I’d never heard of.  After looking in to it I found that it’s a cheese spread, somewhat similar to cream cheese.  Instead of searching it out I opted to follow the same instructions and use the dough recipe provided but make a cream cheese filling.  I took another short cut and bought a can of raspberry filling instead of making my own.

The dough recipe seemed weird to me, powdered sugar instead of granulated.  I looked up quite a few other recipes before finally deciding to just go with the one we were given.  It turned out really well!  It rose nicely, was a breeze to roll out and cut and tasted just like kolache bread should.

When I made kolaches 10 years ago I rolled them into balls, made a little hole in the center and filled it with the fruit.  These kolaches are interesting in their assembly.  You divide the dough into discs, flatten it out, dollop on some cream cheese filling, wrap the dough around it and then make an indentation for the fruit.  It creates more of a layer of cream cheese that melds with the bread instead of a mass of cream cheese filling.  Since this was my first time making these I went easy on the filling and had quite a bit left.  I’d definitely use more cream cheese filling next time.

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I loved the raspberry filling, nice and tart and it paired well with the cream cheese and the bread.  Poppy seed is traditional and I have seen many recipes with prune/plum filling.  I had grand plans to make another batch with pumpkin filling, but my grand plans rarely come to fruition.  Maybe next time.

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The streusel topping, posypka, is beautiful and delicious.  Don’t skip it and don’t skimp on it!  You won’t use all of the recipe below, but it freezes well.  So save it for later or make another batch of kolache.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Kolaches | Hottie Biscotti

These are best the day they’re made, but are still quite good for a couple days, especially warmed just slightly in the microwave.  Just watch out for the fruit filling.  It gets really hot and your mouth will not forgive you for days.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Kolaches | Hottie Biscotti

If you haven’t tried kolache before, I encourage you to!  They’re fun to make and will yield tasty rewards.  Enjoy!

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Moravian Kolache

Makes 10 large kolaches

Ingredients

Dough

  • 3-2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup milk, warm
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 4 teaspoons yeast
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 egg for egg wash

Cream Cheese Filling

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg yolk

Fruit Filling

  • 1 can fruit or poppy seed filling

Posypka (Streusel)

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter, chilled

 Directions

Dough

  1. In a small bowl mix together yeast and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar.  Add 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) warm milk, mix well and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon flour.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 – 15 minutes.
  2. In a bowl of your electric mixer (or in a large bowl) mix flour, sugar, salt, egg yolks, butter, milk and leavened yeast.  Knead with dough hook (or with wooden spoon) on low speed for about 10 minutes.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one to two hours until doubled in volume.

Cream Cheese Filling

  1. Beat together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Posypka

  1. Using a pastry blender combine all ingredients and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Assembly

  1. Preheat oven to 340°F.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Turn dough out onto a floured surface.  Roll gently to a thickness of about 1 cm.  Using a 3-inch cutter make as many rounds as you can.  Re roll the scraps and cut as many more as you can.
  3. Take a dough round and flatten it a bit more.  Scoop on some of the cream cheese mixture, about 1 tablespoon.  Gather the dough around the cream cheese and pinch it together.  Place seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining dough.  Place 5-6 on each cookie sheet, well spaced.
  4. Brush the tops of each with egg wash and using the back of a spoon make an indentation in each.  Fill with raspberry filling and sprinkle with posypka.
  5. Bake one sheet at a time, 15-20 minutes until tops are beginning to become golden.
  6. Let cool briefly and then eat up!

Weikel’s House Special Cookie Copy Cat

There is a place right off of highway 71 in La Grange, Texas, between Houston and Austin, called Weikel’s where you can stop for gas and get a snack.  If you ever make this drive you have definitely driven by and likely stopped at a similar spot called Hruska’s.  It’s right on the highway in Ellinger and impossible to miss.  But Hruska’s has nothing on Weikel’s, in my opinion.  They’re both gas stations with bakeries serving cookies, kolaches, etc.  Hruska’s, which also offers sausages and lunch/dinner items, had been my go-to stop until my in-laws brought some cookies and shortbread bars to us from Weikel’s.  I haven’t gone back since.

Weikel's House Special Cookies Copy Cat | Hottie Biscotti

Every time I stop here I get cookies for the kids, usually whatever Carson wants and plain sugar for Betsy to keep the mess to a minimum.  I also get a box of house special cookies and a cherry shortbread.  The house special cookies are indeed special and I’ve been wanting to duplicate them for some time.  I might be on my way to doing that with these!

Weikel's House Special Cookies Copy Cat | Hottie Biscotti

The house special is a crispy, crunchy cookie that has cornflakes, oats, pecans and coconut.  There is no butter on the ingredient list, only shortening.  So that could account for the difference in texture between mine and theirs.  I also left out the oats.  But the flavor is very similar and I am real excited that I won’t have to drive to La Grange to get my cookie fix!

However, if I had to choose between mine and Weikel’s I’d still choose Weikel’s.  There’s just something really special about them, and something about the experience of stopping with my kids that makes them better somehow.  And maybe it’s about having someone else make them, like how a sandwich is almost always better when someone else makes it for you than if you make it yourself.  Anyway, be sure to grab one (or a box of 6) if you ever stop by.  Then try this recipe and give me some feedback!  I’d love to truly duplicate these tasty cookies.

Weikel's House Special Cookies Copy Cat | Hottie Biscotti

Weikel’s House Special Cookie Copy Cat

Makes 18-20 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 stick of butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup cornflakes
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions

  1. Beat butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
  2. Add in the oil, granulated sugar, powdered sugar and egg, beating between each addition.  Scrape the bottom of the bowl, add the vanilla and mix again.
  3. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt and mix just to combine.
  4. Fold in the cornflakes, pecans and coconut making sure that it is evenly mixed.
  5. Refrigerate for an hour.
  6. Preheat oven to 350°F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  7. Scoop into large balls (about 2 tablespoons) and place on cookie sheet (6-8 cookies per sheet) and bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden.  Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes on the sheet then move to a wire rack.

Kitty Cat Cake

For my daughter’s 2nd birthday I wanted to make a cake that she’d appreciate not only for its sugar content but for its appearance.  This kitty cat cake was perfect for my animal loving girl!

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All you need for this cake are 2 8-inch round cakes, no need for a uni-tasking cat shaped pan.  And you don’t have to do much cake shaping, either.  Leave one cake whole and cut the other in to a head, ears and tail.

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This next step is the hardest.  Using your favorite frosting recipe, this is mine, stick the pieces together and then frost the cake, being careful around the cut edges.  This first coating of frosting is your crumb coat, so a few crumbs are ok and it doesn’t need to be totally covered.  You’ll do that next.

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Put the cake in the fridge for an hour or two, then frost another time to get a pretty, smooth and crumb-free layer.

Now you can decorate!  I colored some of my vanilla frosting pink and then I just bought a tube of black icing (this one from Wilton) because making your own black icing can be tough.

She was so excited when we put this cake in front of her.  Thankfully at 2 she didn’t care that it wasn’t perfectly frosted or that it kinda looked like a rabbit 🙂  Happy Birthday, sweet Betsy!

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Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

Slowly but surely I am getting back into the groove of making a proper dinner.  This dish has a pretty quick prep time and you can even put it together earlier in the day and bake it later.  It can be a side or your main dish.  So even on a busy weeknight you can have dinner together without much fuss.  And you can use up any summer squash you might have around!

Once at a pot luck dinner a friend brought this amazing, creamy, cheesy squash casserole.  She described the ingredients to me, but I never got the entire recipe.  When I saw this squash casserole on Pinterest I had to give it a try because it looked so similar. Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti This casserole is different.  Less creamy and cheesy, more focus on the vegetables, which is really nice.  It’s flavorful, clean tasting, and delicious.  One of the main differences is that this one doesn’t use condensed cream soup, something I really have nothing against, but something that I don’t mind finding a replacement for if I can.  The original recipe calls for eggs and sour cream as the binders.  I used the eggs, but substituted greek yogurt and it turned out really well.

The feta gives a nice punch to the dish.  I mixed in some shredded carrots to add extra veggies and to help with some fridge clean out.  This is a really great side dish.  I served it with grilled pork tenderloin and bread.

The thyme is a great herb here, you can use fresh or dried.  I used a mixture of green and yellow squash, but you can use all of one type of course.  And something I think I might try next time is using goat cheese instead of feta because I love me some goat cheese.  Enjoy! Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti

Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

Adapted slightly from Kitchen Escapades Serves 4-6 as a side dish Ingredients

  • 5-6 squash (mix of zucchini and yellow squash) sliced
  • 3-4 grated carrots
  • olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (or 2 tsp dried)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • heaping half cup of crumbled feta
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. In a large saucepan heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat.
  3. Add in the squash and cook for a few minutes.  Add in the carrots and garlic and cook, stirring to keep the garlic from burning, until the squash just begins to soften.  Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
  4. In a medium bowl whisk eggs and yogurt, then stir in the feta and parmesan.  Season with a little salt and pepper.
  5. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and layer half of the squash in the pan.  Spread half of the yogurt mixture on top, then layer again with squash and then yogurt.  Sprinkle with a little extra feta if you have some!
  6. Bake for 45 minutes until top is golden brown.  Serve warm.  This reheats well for a light lunch.

Kale, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta Salad

My husband was recently gone for work for a month, making a visit home one weekend.  It was rough having him gone, but we had a ton of help from friends and family.  People have asked how I did it, and the answer is that I didn’t!  I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who visited, let us invade your homes and watched my kids.

One of the things that fell by the wayside when I was home with just the kids was cooking dinner for myself.  I’d almost always have some random meal of snacks or a frozen dinner.  But when I saw this dish I knew I’d be putting it together for dinner and enjoying it for a few meals.Kale, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta Salad | Hottie Biscotti

When cooking for one I find it best to make something that is either good cold or good reheated as leftovers.  As much as I love to cook, I don’t want to prep and cook a meal every evening.  Having a couple nights a week where I can eat what I’ve already prepared is really helpful.  This pasta salad is best the day you make it, but is good cold or warm as leftovers.

This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman.  I followed it almost exactly.  I added 6 slices of cooked, chopped bacon and then changed the cooking a little.  The reason for changing the cooking is not because I thought it would be better or easier, but because I didn’t read through the directions fully before I started…

Kale, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta Salad | Hottie Biscotti

I really like kale, but only when it’s been softened with some kind of dressing or if it’s been cooked.  It’s lightly cooked here, which makes it less bitter.  It’s also chopped into fairly small pieces, so it’s not overwhelming.  Full disclosure though, if you don’t like kale at all you probably won’t like this.  You could leave out the kale completely, but I think that it makes this dish not only lovely but also at least just a little good for me.

This garlic oil is incredible.  You could end the dish here and be good.  I’ll be using this again on other pasta dishes.

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The combination of pine nuts, bacon and parmesan is perfect.

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Serve this up right after assembling and eat any leftovers either cold or heat it up a bit.

Kale, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta Salad | Hottie Biscotti

Kale, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta Salad

Slightly Adapted from The Pioneer Woman  

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces of bowtie pasta
  • 6 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped. drippings reserved
  • 1 bunch of kale, washed, dried, ribs removed and chopped fine
  • 3 tablespoons pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • fresh cracked black pepper
  • 3 ounces of shredded parmesan

Directions

  1. Heat a small skillet over medium heat and toast the pine nuts, shaking them frequently to keep them from burning.  Once they are golden brown remove from the pan.
  2. In the same pan heat oil over medium-low heat and add the garlic.  Cook, stirring frequently to keep the garlic from burning.  Once it begins to turn golden turn off the heat and add in the salt and pepper and set aside.
  3. Cook the pasta noodles according to package instructions, drain and rinse in cold water.  Transfer to a large serving bowl.
  4. In a large pan heat 2 teaspoons of bacon drippings over medium heat and add in the kale.  Cook until softened to your liking, 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from the heat.
  5. Add garlic oil, kale, bacon, parmesan and pine nuts to the pasta and toss to combine.