Kolaczki

Polish Kolaczki, the spelling varies widely, (also called Kiffles) are flaky little pastries, sometimes considered cookies, filled with fruit, cheese, nut or poppyseed pastes. Kolaczki can be round, square or diamond shaped, and the dough can be a flaky cream cheese pastry or yeast-risen. The first recipe below uses yeast; the second uses cream cheese.

The yeast recipe was given to me by a Polish lady named Eva that I worked with at the Texas Hot in Wellsville, NY in the early 1980s. They were one of her traditional Holiday cookies and are made with yeast. She called them Pineapple Filled Cookies, although since then I have discovered that they are actually a traditional Polish Holiday cookie called Kolaczki, sometimes made with a cream cheese pastry instead this one made with yeast.

I have added a recipe I found for the cream cheese version at the end of this page.

Kolaczki (Made with yeast pastry)

For the first dough: Mix the 3 cups flour and salt. Cut the lard the flour and salt mixture until it has a mealy texture. Let stand.

Second dough: Heat the milk briefly. Cool to around 90° F. Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the other 3 cups flour with the egg yolks and salt to the yeast-milk mixture. Let stand 10 minutes.

Add the two doughs together on a floured board. Mix well till both doughs are blended together. Refrigerate overnight.

Make the filling by mixing the crushed pineapple, nuts and coconut into the melted butter or margarine. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll dough 1/4" thick. [Many recipes say to roll the dough in a dusting of confectioner's sugar instead of flour.] Cut into 2-inch squares. Place 1 teaspoon filling on center of each square. Overlap opposite corners of dough to the center over filling and seal.

Place on greased cookies sheets. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool and sprinkle or roll in confectioner's sugar.

Walnut Filling I found on the Internet:

1/2 pound walnuts finely ground
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whole milk boiled
2 tbsp unsalted butter melted

Mix filling in a medium bowl using only 1/4 cup of the boiled milk. The mixture should be thick. If the filling is not spreadable, use the rest (more) of the milk. It will thicken as it sits. Note: You can make the filling ahead of time and freeze it until you are ready to use it. Just thaw at room temperature when you are ready to use.

Place a dollop of filling in one corner of each square. The author used 1/2 teaspoon.

Recipe was for 48 cookies

Kolaczki (Made with cream cheese pastry)
from http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/

1 (8-ounce) cream cheese, softened
12 ounces (3 sticks) butter, softened
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 (14-ounce) cans fillings of choice (apricot, prune, raspberry, etc.)
Confectioners' sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add flour 1 cup at a time and mix well. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough 1/4-inch on a surface that has been dusted with equal parts confectioners' and granulated sugars (not flour). Cut into 2-inch squares. Place 1/2 to 1 teaspoon filling on center of each square. Overlap opposite corners of dough to the center over filling.

Bake for 15 minutes or when corners start to brown. Cool and dust with confectioners’ sugar. These tend to become soggy if held for several days, so store them tightly covered (or freeze) without the confectioners' sugar. Dust with confectioners' sugar just prior to service.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies