Traditionally Kolaches are Czech pastries, not cookies. Doughy yeast buns filled with jam or poppy seeds. However, in my family we always make this buttery, jam-filled cookie version dusted with powdered sugar.
It seems like jam-filled cookies span so many countries. Sometimes in different shapes – my Aunt Mary Ann makes a Polish version that is folded like a little napkin.
The Kolaches Cookies are a “Czech” version. Basically an Americanized version of the traditional Czech kolache which is a yeast bun with a jam-filled middle. I ate plenty of them on my trip to Prague.
My sister-in-law Stacy, who is also of Czech heritage, has a family recipe for the yeast bun version that she’s shared with me.
One day I will get around to trying them. But this cookie version has the most amazing dough that is a mix of butter, sour cream, and powdered sugar. No one is counting calories, let’s just get that out in the open.
I made these Kolaches Cookies for a recipe contest on Food52. We ate a few of those, but the rest I froze for Christmas.
- If you freeze these, DO NOT dust them with powdered sugar until you are ready to serve. It will just melt into the cookie.
When I went to look for them the other day they were “missing.” I’m not making any accusations here, but there is a certain male in my household that is clearly to blame for this incident. We will just need to bake more!
How to Roll Cookie Dough Evenly
Have you ever struggled to get your roll out cookies perfectly even? It makes baking times hard when some cookies are thin and some are thick, maybe even from side to side on the same cookie!
When you’re baking delicate cut-out cookies like these Kolaches Cookies, even rolling is pretty important. The solution?
This rolling pin! It makes even rolling simple – from pie crusts to cut-out cookies.
A jam-filled cookie version of a traditional Czech pastry, Kolache.
- 1/2 pound butter softened slightly (2 sticks)
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened slightly
- 2 cups flour sifted
- 1 cup powdered sugar plus more for sprinkling
- 1 jar preserves not jelly, flavor of your choice
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Cream butter and cream cheese.
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Mix in flour and powdered sugar to form a smooth dough. If the dough seems too soft and buttery, I often add a 1/4 cup more powdered sugar.
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Gather dough into a ball, flatten a round disk, saran wrap and chill for about 1 hour or overnight. This makes it easier to roll out and cut into circles.
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Roll dough out to somewhere between a 1/4" and 1/2 " thickness. Using a 3-4" biscuit or round cookie cutter, cut circles, rerolling the scraps until you've used all the dough.
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Place circles onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Using your thumb make a deep impression in the center of each cookie. Fill that impression with about 1 tsp of preserve. (too much preserves will cause it to overflow, still yummy, but not pretty)
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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until just beginning to brown on the bottom edges. 10-12 min. Rotate halfway through baking time. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar right before serving.
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Cookies can be made ahead of time and frozen. If you freeze them, don't sprinkle with powdered sugar until ready to serve.
Does your family make kolaches? Please share your favorite!!
Yay! I’m excited for the buns! Are u makin them 2017? I miss the buns from that restaurant in Minnesota!
My Czech friend kim and I made these. She’d never had them and her and her hubby ❤️Ed them! She was used to the buns but more then approved these!
🙂 Děkuji
I yielded 24 cookies at 1/2 ” thick, baked at 18 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, would increase to 20 minutes next time as I use air pans. I found the dough too sweet for kolaches, it didn’t have the tang of the cream cheese, I would reduce sugar to 1/2 cup and increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. In Europe unsalted butter is used, I added 1/4 tsp of salt since my butter was unsalted. I also added a splash of vanilla, my grandmother used to add a pouch of Dr Oetker’s vanilla sugar. I used raspberry and apricot jams that I made.