Kolaches
| Summary | |
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| Prep time | |
| Cook time | |
| Source | The Great Minnesota Cookie Book by Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson (pg 63) |
| Yield / serves | ~5 dozen |
| Rating | (unrated) |
Ingredients
- 4 c flour, plus extra for rolling dough
- 1/4 oz active dry yeast (1 pkg)
- 2 c cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 c sour cream
- 3 egg whites
- 1 c sugar
- ~2 c apricot or raspberry preserves
- powdered sugar for garnish
Preparation
In a large bowl, sift the flour. Sprinkle the yeast over the flour. Using a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolks and sour cream, and stir until well-combined (the dough will be thick). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° and line the baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed, make meringue by whipping the egg whites for 2 minutes. Slowly add the sugar, whipping the egg whites to stiff, glossy (but not dry) peaks, and reserve.
On a lightly floured work surface using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll 1 cup of cookie dough (keeping the remaining dough in the refrigerator so it remains firm) to the thickness of a pie crust, roughly 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter or a pastry or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 3-inch squares and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, gather up the scraps, re-rolling, and cutting until all the dough is used.
Fill each square with 3/4 teaspoon of fruit preserves and 1 generous teaspoon of meringue. Pull the corners of the cookie into the center and pinch the gathered corners together tightly. Bake the cookies until the pastry is golden brown (the cookies will reopen during baking), about 25 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack placed over wax paper to cool completely. To garnish, fill a wire sieve with powdered sugar and gently tap out powdered sugar over the cooled cookies.
