Koláče

These pastries have fillings of white cheese, black poppy seed and deep purplish-brown plum set inside a plump rim. In Czech, koláče is a word that broadly refers to baked pastries, but the ones discussed here are round yeasted pastries topped with sweet fillings. Some are small and eaten one at a time, others are single large rounds cut into slices, and they have been associated with weddings, church celebrations and pilgrimage festivals.

Thin in the center, thick at the rim

Flour, yeast, milk, sugar, eggs, fat and other ingredients are kneaded and left to rise; the dough is then divided, shaped into balls and rested a little longer. Some recipes (ingredient proportions and method) add lemon zest or nutmeg. The rested dough is pressed outward from the center with the fingers, leaving the rim thick. This turns the thin center into a cradle for the filling. The rim, brushed with beaten egg, bakes into a ring with a golden sheen.

Typical fillings are tvaroh, a fresh-cheese-type dairy product; ground poppy seeds; and povidla, plums cooked down until thick. Sugar and egg yolks are mixed into the tvaroh, and milk, water or other liquids are added to the poppy seeds to make a paste in which the seeds do not scatter. Some versions use walnut filling or fruit. Small ones with a single filling in the center and large ones with several fillings arranged in sections also differ in how many fillings go into one bite.

Small koláče. The dark filling in the center and the thick rim left around it are visible. Photo: Chmee2, 2007-05-26, Czechia. Original image / CC BY-SA 3.0. Downscaled version from the distributing source; no additional editing.

Different ways of arranging the fillings in the highlands and lowlands of Chodsko

In the Chodsko region of West Bohemia, there is a craft of decorating the surface of the large rounds in distinct ways. According to the Domažlice town cultural center, in versions made in the highlands, cheese, poppy seed and plum are arranged in bands so that all three show on top. Raisins are placed on the cheese, almonds on the plum, and small flowers of white cheese on the poppy seed, and after baking the pastry is sprinkled with a rum-flavored cream.

In versions made in the lowlands, the whole surface is first covered white with cheese, and then patterns are drawn on top with poppy seed and plum. This work, called merhování, is also presented as connected with the patterns of the local folk costume. Even with the same three fillings, whether they are separated into bands or drawn on a white ground changes both the look of the whole round and the proportion of each filling in every slice.

Festive tables and the large pastries of Wallachia

Weddings, church festivals and pilgrimage festivals bring together tasks that can be shared out: kneading, letting the dough rise, making several kinds of filling, arranging them on the surface and so on. When a large round is cut, each slice contains the soft rim and several rich fillings; with a small one, you eat your way from the rim toward the center. In this way, poppy seed, cheese and fruit are enjoyed together with a bread dough that contains milk and fat.

In the Wallachia region of eastern Czechia, there is also the large, flat Valašský frgál, which is protected as a regional pastry. Koláče do not all refer to this one type; local forms survive in their size, fillings and decoration.

In the Haná region of Moravia, there was also the “wedding tree,” for which a large round of dough was baked for a wedding and topped with dough figures attached to sticks and paper decorations. The bride’s godparent took the lead, and it was made over several days with the help of several people. The decorations differed from village to village, and after the feast the pastry was cut and shared among the guests along with the decorations on the sticks. The Prostějov Museum explains that these wedding pastry customs survived in the region until the mid-20th century.

A name derived from “wheel,” and what it means in Texas

In Czech, the singular is koláč and the plural is koláče. In discussing the Austrian loanword Kolatsche, the linguist Heinz Dieter Pohl connects the Czech koláč with kolo, “wheel,” because of its round shape. There are pastries with similar names across the Slavic-speaking world, but their present-day forms and recipes differ from place to place.

In Texas, where emigrants settled, the range of pastries the name kolache refers to widens even further. A guide from the city of Temple distinguishes sweet kolaches topped with fruit or cream cheese from klobasneks, which wrap sausage, cheese, jalapeño and the like. However, because the latter are also commonly called “sausage kolaches,” the same name is used for both sweet round buns with the filling showing on top and buns that wrap meat.

A Czech man living in the United States and his family served small koláče with beer after his wedding. Later, when his wife baked them at home, she used a recipe she had received from her husband’s mother and made the dough while her husband taught her. Since she could not obtain ground poppy seeds, she reportedly prepared only a filling made with farmer’s cheese. The ingredients available where the baker lives also shape a household’s dish.

The festival that continues in Prague, Oklahoma

In Prague, Oklahoma, in the United States, kolache even became the name of a festival that passes on Czech heritage. According to the organizers, the first festival was held in 1951 in preparation for the town’s 50th anniversary in 1952, the following year. After a hiatus, it resumed in 1965 and continues today with folk costumes, dancing and a competition judging home baking.

The recipe shared at the festival includes a coconut filling in addition to prune, apricot, poppy seed and cottage cheese. The rims are brushed with butter rather than beaten egg, and either posypka, a crumb mixture of flour, butter and sugar, is scattered over before baking, or a thin glaze is applied once they have cooled. These koláče carry on the fillings of the homeland while adding the ingredients and finishes chosen by families in their new home.

Glossary