It’s been a busy month, so it was nice to spend Sunday at home, baking cottage cheese kolaches with Rookie at my side. What inspired me to make these pretty Czech pastries featuring a sweet yeast dough, creamy filling and crumb topping?
Well, the kind folks at Nancy’s sent me coupons so I could taste and experiment with some of their products. And that’s just what I did!
On a recent trip to Whole Foods, I picked up a tub of Nancy’s organic cottage cheese on a whim. After browsing for recipes online, I settled on cottage cheese kolaches – because who can resist a soft, buttery bun stuffed with a tangy, vanilla-scented filling?
Cottage cheese kolaches are best enjoyed warm from the oven. If you can’t manage to eat them all in a day, store any leftovers in the freezer.
Recipe adapted from Saveur.
- 6 tablespoons milk
- ¼ cup water
- 1⅛ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar, divided
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ½ egg yolk
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cottage cheese
- 1 ounce cream cheese, room temperature
- 1½ tablespoons sugar
- ½ egg yolk
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
- In a large bowl, heat milk and water until warm - about 30 seconds in the microwave should do. Add the yeast and ½ teaspoon sugar. Whisk together until thoroughly combined and let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the butter and remaining 1½ teaspoons sugar and stir until smooth. Add the egg yolk and salt and stir to combine.
- Add the butter mixture and 1½ cups flour to the milk mixture and stir to combine. Continue adding flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together to form a shaggy ball; it should be tacky but not sticky. Then knead the dough by hand (or with a dough hook attachment) until it’s smooth and elastic - this will take about 5 minutes (or less if using a stand mixer). Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. While the dough is rising, prepare the filling and crumb topping.
- In a food processor or blender, purée all the filling ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Melt the butter in a small bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Transfer to the freezer.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- After the dough has risen, punch it down and divide into 6 equal pieces. Gently shape each piece into a ball and arrange 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Cover buns with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until slightly puffed, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Brush tops of buns with melted butter. Using the back of a tablespoon, create an indentation in the center of each bun. Distribute the filling among the indentations.
- Sprinkle the chilled crumb topping over the filling.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
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