Czech Kolaches

Greetings fellow bloggers. Again, it has been too long since I have posted here. We have been so busy these past few months with my oldest son graduating from College, my youngest starting college, the holidays, and hosting an exchange student, Lukáš, from the Czech Republic. If you ever have an opportunity to host an exchange student, I highly recommend it. It is so rewarding. It is great fun seeing things new through his eyes, and at the same time, we learn so much from him about his culture, family, and country. Last year we hosted, Luís, from Brazil for several months and again it was so much fun. We continue to keep in touch with him and hope to visit him in Brazil one of these days.

Lukáš' family has shared several recipes with us including his grandmother's kolache recipe. These, my friends, are to die for! Now I've had kolaches from "The Czech Bakery" in West, Texas before, and I found them to be quite delicious, but I have to say, Lukáš' grandmother's kolache recipe is the best I have tasted.






Lukáš' Grandmother's Kolaches
Dough
4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Package(2¼ tsp) dry yeast
3½ Tbsp sugar
⅓ Cup + 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
⅓ Cup + 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 egg yolk
1 cup milk
Grated Lemon peel
½ Tsp Salt
egg whites to brush over the top (optional)

Filling
1 Pint Cottage Cheese
3 oz Cream Cheese
1 Egg Yolk
½ Tsp Vanilla
Grated Lemon Peel
½ Cup Powdered Sugar

Crumb Topping
½ Cup Butter
½ Cup Flour
½ Cup Powdered Sugar

Jam, preserves, or Jelly of choice

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).

To make the dough, add dough ingredients to bread maker in order recommended by the bread maker manufacturer. Use grated lemon peel for ½ of the lemon in the dough. Reserve the other half for the filling. Set the bread maker on the dough cycle and start it.

About a half hour before the dough completes, I start making the filling and toppings.

To make the filling, the Czech recipe actually specified curds with no cream cheese, but I had a difficult time finding them in the grocery store. I tried using cottage cheese, as is, the first time and the filling came out way too wet. The next time I made these I found it worked out better to put the cottage cheese in a fine strainer and run water over it to rinse the milk off from the curds and mix this with 3 oz of cream cheese with a mixer. Then add the rest of the filling ingredients including the grated lemon peel from the other half of the lemon. Mix until well blended. Set aside.

To make the topping, use a fork to blend the flour with the powdered sugar, then cut in the butter until crumbly. Add more flour or sugar if too moist. Set Aside.

When the dough cycle completes, you can begin assembling the kolaches as follows: Cut off a bit of dough, the amount you would use for some large rolls (I would guess about 2½ Tbsp). Roll it out till about ¼" thick. Spoon almost 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of the rolled out dough, then fold the sides up around the filling and pinch to seal. I place them in the pan with the pinched side facing down, but Lukáš' grandmother usually puts them in the pan with the pinched side facing up. If you put it face down like I do, you will need to poke a fork in the top several times to prevent it from bubbling up when baking. With your fingers, press an indentation in the top of the kolache as shown in these pictures.

If desired, brush some egg whites over the top. Spoon some of the jam into the indentation. The ones shown in my pictures have apricot and seedless raspberry jam. Try not to overfill as I tend to do or it will run down the sides. Sprinkle the topping over the tops of the kolaches then bake about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them as they bake. If they start to bubble up, poke them with a fork. They should have a nice golden color when they are done. This recipe makes about 12-14 Kolaches depending on how big you make them.

Many thanks to Lukáš' family for sharing this recipe, and many thanks to Lukáš for translating it for us ☺

Enjoy!! Have a great week!

Floral Whispers

These are Blue Muscari flowers, also known as Grape Hyacinth....an appropriate name. I am loving the soft spring pastels right now.



Processed using Florabella Champagne @ 77% Soft Light.


Processed using Kim Klassen's "Happy Heart" Texture, converted to grey scale and inverted.



Processed using Florabella Allure @ 91% Soft Light.

I wanted to let you know that I finally finished my Adobe Lightroom Review. Click the "Photography Product Reviws" link at the top of the page to check it out. Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing some Lightroom tips and tricks over here so please come back. Well, that is all for now. Have a Happy Texture Tuesday!

Sharing this over at Texture Tuesday

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I love to bake, and I most definitely have a sweet tooth. One of my favorite things to bake is muffins....chocolate chip muffins, blueberry muffins, and these apple cinnamon muffins are my favorites. As I have been working on my still life photography lately, I thought I would snap a few shots as I made this last batch and share them here on my blog. Scroll down for the recipe :-)

Cinnamon Apple Muffins
Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon all-spice
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 Granny Smith Apples, cored, peeled, and coarsely chopped
Approximately 14 standard paper baking cups
Topping
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line muffin pan with paper or foil baking cups.

To make muffins, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice in a medium bowl until blended. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk mixture and stir just until evenly moistened. The batter should be slightly lumpy. Fold the apples into the batter and mix just until evenly distributed. Do over-do-it with the stirring.

To make topping, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons four and 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon in a small bowl. cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. If desired, stir in the pecans or walnuts.

Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim. Sprinkle topping over the muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.






Sharing this post over at The Creative Exchange, Favourite Photo Monday and Show off your Shot

Enjoy!! Have a great start of the week!

Tulip Opening

I found this lovely bouquet of tulips in my grocery store and couldn't resist...a delightful preview of the flowers I hope to see in my garden this spring. The tulips were mere buds when I first brought them home, but after only a few hours, they opened to their full, elegant splendor.


Processed using Kim Klassen's LightPaper3 Texture


Processed using Florabella champagne Texture

Processed using Florabella White Linen Overlay (left) and Champagne Texture (right)


Also processed using Kim Klassen's LightPaper3 Texture

Sharing this over at: The Creative Exchange, Show off Your Shot, Texture Tuesday, and Favourite Photo Monday

If you've visited me here before, you may have noticed that I have been re-designing my blog. I think I am close to getting it the way I want it. It has been a lot of fun playing around with different colors, background textures, and graphics for the blog header. I hope you like it :-)

Have a great start of the week!

Gingerbread Cookies

If I ever ask my family what kind of cookies they would like me to bake, the answer is always the same. "Can you please make your gingerbread cookies"? I have been making these ever since my kids were toddlers. They are in college now and still ask for gingerbread cookies. Holidays just wouldn't be the same without them.

Making these cookies is usually a multi-day event for me.

Day 1 I make the cookie dough and chill it in the fridge.

Day 2 I roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and bake them.

Day 3 I make the icing and decorate the cookies.

One of my favorite memories making these cookies was when my youngest son was 2 years old. He was helping me decorate the cookies. After some time he piped up, all excited, "Look mommy, he has a wee wee!". Sure enough, I look over and he has created an anatomically correct gingerbread man. Kids do the darndest things! It was all I could do to keep a straight face.

If you want to make these yummy cookies, here is the recipe I use:

Gingerbread Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ginger

Cream sugar and butter in mixing bowl. Beat in molasses and buttermilk. Stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed. Chill several hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time on a floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are set. Decorate with Spiced Vanilla Icing.

Spiced Vanilla Icing
Corrected


4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 tablespoons light cream or Milk
1/4 teaspoon Cloves (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Ginger (optional)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (optional)
Food Coloring (optional)

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, butter and enough cream until it has a very soft, spreadable consistency. Use it just like this if you want to decorate white cookies. Add all or any combination of the cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon to make a delicious spiced icing. Separate it into different bowls and add food coloring if desired.

I doubled the icing recipe since I usually need at least 2 batches to decorate the cookies; however, I originally forgot to double some of the ingredients. That has been corrected. Sorry about that!

Happy Baking!!

Some of these images have been processed using Kim Klassen's Day 6 and Day 7 magic textures. Many thanks to Kim for hosting her 12 days of textures!