Easy Cream Cheese Kolache Recipe

Kolache is a famous Czech pastry which is made from a soft and rich dough, shaped into a small disc with indentation in the middle. The center is filled with some kind of sweet filling, often made from dried fruit and/or cheese. 

The common fruits that can be used for filling are apricot, prune and poppy seed.

Kolaches make for an impressive and delicious breakfast, dessert, or snack.

Ingredients needed

To make the bread dough

1. All purpose flour/Bread flour: 3 cups (loosely packed)or 390g
2. Warm Milk 1/2 Cup or 120 ml; If you don’t want to add milk, you can use plain water instead.
3. Warm Water 1/2 cup or 120ml
4. Unsalted Butter (softened)1/4 Cup or 57g
5. Sugar 2 and 1/2 tbsp or 32g
6. Salt 1 tsp or 6 g
7. Yeast (instant /active dried yeast) 1tsp or 3 g

For the filling

1. Cream Cheese :8 ozor 226g
2. Sugar: 1/4 cup or 50g
3. Vanilla extract/vanilla powder 1/2 tsp
4. 1 Egg Yolk or 2 tbsp flour

How to make cream cheese kolache

It is so easy to make this cream cheese kolache.The overall process from preparing the dough to baking the kolache will take only less than 2 hours .

How to prepare the kolache dough

Into a bowl add the warm milk and water, sugar,salt,yeast and softened butter and combine everything together.

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature and the milk and water should be preferably warm(not hot).It should be ideally around 100 F or the warmth of the milk should be like a baby food,we should not be able to feel the hot but a comfortable warmth.

Yeast cells will die if it is in high temperature(130 F and above) and it’s action will slow down in a cold environment(less than 70 F).

Then add in the flour into this mixture and combine them together to form a shaggy mass of dough.

If you are kneading the dough in a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough.

If you are kneading the dough by hands, transfer the dough on to a clean work surface and knead the dough for a few minutes(6-8 minutes)until it form a smooth dough.

The dough may feel sticky in the beginning, thats ok,(that’s the way it should be); you may be tempted to add more flour but don’t do that.The dough will come together in about 5 minutes of kneading.

First Proofing (30 minutes)

Shape it into a ball ; then flatten it a little and then cover it with a bowl or kitchen towel and let the dough rest on the counter for thirty minutes.This will let the dough sit for a few minutes so that the gluten stands will relax.

This resting will prevent our dough from enormous rebounding back of the dough while rolling it into a thin rectangular sheet.

Divide and Shape the kolaches

So for the next step of shaping the rolls, first we need to roll the dough into a sheet (1/2 inch thick).

Then using a cookie cutter or with the open mouth of a glass ,cut rounds (about 2 1/2 inches in diameter).

Place the dough rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Second Rising(45 minutes)

Then cover and allow the dough discs to rise for 45 minutes.

Prepare the cream cheese filling for kolache by mixing cream cheese ,sugar and vanilla powder or vanilla extract.

When the dough discs are puffy, use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to press a deep indentation into the center.Press firm and deep;or otherwise the cream cheese filling will overflow during baking.

Brush the surface of the rim with an egg wash, so that they will get a golden brown colour and shine after baking.

Fill the center with a mixture of cream cheese,sugar, and vanilla(1 and 1/2 to 2 tbsp).

Now our kolache dough discs are ready to go into the oven for baking.

Bake the kolaches

So Bake at 375 F or 190 C for 18-20 minutes.

Baking duration may vary according to the thickness of the kolache.The more thick the kolache the more baking time will it require.

After baking you will get softest kolaches filled with cream cheese.

Watch the video to see how easy it is to make Cream Cheese Kolache