I should start this post by saying, unfortunately I am not of Czech descent. As shown by my grandma’s recipe for spaetzle, my heritage is strongly German. That isn’t stopping me from sharing this Authentic Czech Homemade Kolache Recipe.
Actually, I had never even heard of kolaches until a Kolache Factory opened behind my apartment when I lived in Omaha. After my first visit I was hooked!
Visits to that Kolache Factory became a weekend tradition.
Especially if I had any weekend visitors stop by. This was my place I would take any out of town guests. They quickly understood why.
Upon entering you are greeted with a wall full of baked dough filled with any variety of deliciousness possible.
Sausage, egg, and cheese.
Jalapeno Popper.
Bar-B-Q Brisket
A variety of fruit jams.
But one of my absolute favorites was the cream cheese kolache.
Soft, traditional kolache dough provides a fluffy pillow for a creamy, dreamy cream cheese filling.
As much as I love the cream cheese version, feel free to add whatever filling makes your little heart happy.
Strawberry jam, apricots, cherry pie filling, etc.
Anyway you choose to make these little morsels of deliciousness, make sure to hide some extras for yourself before starting to share with family and friends.
You’ve been warned.
Authentic Czech Homemade Kolache Recipe
Authentic Czech Homemade Kolache Recipe is simple, easy, & the best Kolache Factory Copycat Recipe. Perfect Kolache dough recipe for filling
Ingredients
Kolache Dough
- 2 1/4 tsp Yeast
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1/4 cup Lukewarm Water
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 4 Tbsp Butter, cubed
- 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Instant Potato Flakes
- 1 Egg, slightly beaten
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
Kolache Dough
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Dissolve yeast and 1 tsp sugar into lukewarm water.
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Into a microwave safe bowl, put the milk and butter. Microwave just until butter melts. Let cool slightly to 110°F (so it doesn't kill the yeast).
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In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with salt, sugar, and potato flakes. Add in yeast mixture, warmed milk and butter. Stir to combine. Add the egg and blend into dough.
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Knead in remaining flour until dough comes together and it is slightly sticky.
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Let dough raise for an hour and a half or until doubled.
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Once raised, form dough into 12 balls. Place each dough ball onto a parchment lined baking sheet, cover, and let raise another hour.
Cream Cheese Filling
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In a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla.
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Once dough balls have risen for an hour. Use the back of a spoon and make an indentation into the ball.
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Then fill each indentation with cream cheese mixture.
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Bake kolaches at 425°F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Recipe Notes
Instead of cream cheese filling, use your favorite fruit jam or pie filling.
HI! We made your recipe its delicious, and smells heavenly baking!
I feel that they were too chewy, is that from too much dough handling?
Also the front of the pan was a different shade than back of the pan, should we turn pan around half way?
New to us oven, so first time baking anything in it, know we know about uneven baking.
We didn’t have a mixer, so cream cheese was clumpy, s
So hoping next time it will be smoother in appearance.
Each time we bake we learn something!
Thanks for posting this great recipe! Now the question is milk or coffee?
Blessings,
Gina and Tony Ruff
Lee, FL
Gina and Tony, so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Congrats on the new oven. Does it have a convection setting? If you turn that on it may help distribute the heat more evenly throughout the oven during baking. The dough should be pretty fluffy with a slight chew to it after baking. Too much dough handling could have been the culprit there. And for the cream cheese, I would say I get the best results by making sure the cream cheese is super soft so it blends up better. Thanks so much for the questions and review!
Making recipe now. What did you use for topping? Grew up in Brainard & Omaha, Ne, but now live in Birmingham AL. Always happy to see recipes from our Czech heritage. First time using potato flakes!
Prune, cottage cheese and poppyseed kolaches are family favorites. Thanks for your website.
Marlyss Fiala
Thanks Marlyss. For the topping of the cream cheese filling I sometimes make a crumb topping of 2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp white sugar, 1 Tbsp flour, 1 Tbsp melted butter, and sprinkle of cinnamon. Mix it all together and then crumble on top of filling before baking.
I’m a Czech-Texan who has enjoyed kolaches made by my Czech-born grandma and aunts for decades. Although sausages wrapped In dough available at most donut shops are indeed tasty, these are pigs in a blanket, not kolaches. I am happy to see this recipe with the flat pastry and center filling which is the true Czech kolache. The very traditional fillings that I grew up with are cream cheese, prune, peach, and sausage. I don’t recall ever seeing any other fillings than these from the old country. Be sure to top your kolaches with the drobenka!
I grew up with prune & apricot kolaches that our Grandmother made. So many other Czech recipes also, that I can’t spell, but trying to find them online. If we had of gotten a taste of the cream cheese ones, she wouldn’t have had any around to share, too many grandchildren.
Haha! I love this. Grandma wanted to make sure all you kids got at least a little fruit.
My grandma was Polish and made kolaches, usually prune, apricot, cream cheese, or poppy seed. During the Depression, she made them and sent her children door to door selling them to neighbors. Lucky neighbors!
Why does it say 2 1/2-31/2 cups of flour?
Depending on your location and the weather… the flour needed to make the proper consistency of dough could be between 2 1/2 cups and 3 1/2 cups of the flour.
What is the amount of flour that works best for your location? Since I’ll probably have to make this several times to figure out how much flour to use, it would be nice to have a starting point.
I use all-purpose flour for this recipe. Start with about 2.5 cups of flour as directed in the instructions and then slowly add up to a cup more until the dough comes together and is only slightly sticky.
Id love some czech entrees….we still do szallona at picknics…i got hungarian polish a czech in me
Sounds delicious.
Can you use 2% milk
Sure can!
I live at 7500 feet elevation. Do you think I’ll need to make adjustments to the recipe?
Hi Ms. High Elevation! Yes- some adjustments may need to be made. The recipe calls for 2.5 to 3.5 cups of flour. Most likely you will only need the lower amount in that range. When mixing only add as much flour until the dough comes together- it should be slightly sticky at that point so don’t add too much as it could become dense at your elevation. Good luck!
i lost my Bublanina recipe – all I can remember is that it had a lot of eggs and the dough was very loose not thick. And it bubbled up when baked. Can you help me. Thanks Patt
Hi Patt. Your bublanina recipe sounds delicious, unfortunately I’ve never tried that before. I think I would love it though.
Hope this helps. I found this recipe
https://www.cooklikeczechs.com/bublanina-czech-fruit-sheet-cake/
I really don’t see how you can bake these at 425. Using a different recipe, I cooked them at 350 and burned the hell out of the bottoms. I even used parchment paper. 425 seems like they would come out burnt all over. I Jay am I misssing?
Hi Todd. I’m going to assume since you baked at a lower temp you also had to bake for a longer time? That could be part of the reason for the burnt bottoms. At 425F the kolaches are only in the oven for a few minutes. Enough time to puff around the filling and become golden brown. That being said- every oven is different. Even mine gets temperamental from time to time and I have to adjust baking instructions as needed. Hope you give it another shot!
Hi! Is there a sub for potato flakes? I have everything in house except that one ingredient, which isn’t carried by local grocery either. Many thanks for your response…and the recipe!
I’m sorry, I don’t have a sub for the potato flakes.
It’s the potato flakes that give you the nice soft dough.
Dena, I think you could work with a box of instant mashed potatoes. They are basically potato flakes.
Just microwave a russet potato & use that, you can even use the water from boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes. You don’t HAVE to use instant potatoes if you want to use regular potatoes.
I love all flavors. This is a great recipe that I don’t want to lose. Cream cheese is my favorite but I love the blueberry too. Do you make the sausage kolaches the same way? Thank you for sharing.
Hi Hope! If I make the sausage varieties, when I divide the dough into 12 balls, I flatten out each one, put in the (cooked) filling, and then form the dough around the sausage. Let it rise for another hour and then bake as directed in this recipe.
Little known fact = The ones with sausage are called Klobasniky.
I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing 🙂