Poppy Seed Greengage Kolacky

Another week, another treat! Yes, it's time to come up with yet another pretty tasty recipe. This time I show you something traditional in a little bit untraditional way :) Want to know more?

I'll tell you something about these kolacky. Kolacky is a Czech word for plural form of kolacek - it means something like little pie but it's not the same. Kolac is bigger form of kolacek (a.k.a a big pie). This type of pastry is very usual and traditional for the Czech Republic. The most common type of kolac is filled with sweet quark filling and topped with plum butter and crumble topping.

Pie is something quite different because the dough (a.k.a. pie crust) is usually shortcrust - simply it's not made with the usage of  fresh yeast and it has more filling and usually is topped with crust, too. Our kolace (plural form of kolac) are soft in texture and have less filling (plus the dough is usually pretty sweet, itself). That's the reason I didn't translate kolacky as little pies because it could be confusing and it is something similar but not the same.

As a filling I chose from of my magazine recipes - poppy seeds and quark cheese create a wonderful combination and I really love greengages. They're so sweet! I love the combination of creamy filling and fresh fruit - it's so refreshing and delicious that nothing can beat it (well, ok, maybe except for chocolate, of course :D). And if you don't know what to bake this weekend you can try this recipe :)

Ingredients:
Dough:
30g fresh yeast
110g caster sugar
500g all-purpose flour
250ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
100g melted butter
2 egg yolks
1 egg for egg wash
Filling:
250g quark cheese
1 egg
75g powdered sugar
25g ground poppy seeds
400g greengages, cut into sixths

Directions:

Dough: At first you have to make the leaven - mix fresh yeast with 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp milk together using a spoon. Set aside in a warm place (about 30C) for about 15 minutes (it has to get foamy and be doubled in size). In the meantime mix the rest of flour with sugar and salt. Then add the leaven, vanilla extract, egg yolks and lukewarm melted butter to the flour mixture. Mix it using your hands and add a small amount of the rest of milk, mix again and the rest of the milk. Knead the dough until it's smooth and not sticky. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with tea towel and let rise for 1 hour (or until doubled in size). Then seperate the dough into 16 balls. Transfer them onto a greased baking sheet and using the bottom of a glass create a "bowl" (press the ball in the middle so you have edge around and in the center there's enough space for the filling) and let rise for another 15 minutes. Spread the egg wash around the edges of the "dough bowles" and fill them with the sixths of greengages. Pour the filling over the greengage sixths. Bake in preheated oven to 180C for about 20 minutes or until golden in colour.

Filling: Mix quark cheese, egg, powdered sugar, and poppy seeds together.

• It's very important to let cool the melted butter otherwise it would be too hot and it'd "kill" the yeast (simply your dough would not rise).

• You can use any other plums which are now in season in your country.
• If cannot find quark cheese (typical cheese for Europe) in your local store, use low-fat cream cheese instead - it's similar (but not the same, though).
•  The baked kolacky are best the day they're done. However, they taste great the next day, too. Do not store them in refrigerator! Just cover them with tea towel.

Verdict:

My daddy raved about them. He just loves the yeast dough :) I liked them, too. The filling was just sweet enough and the greegages? Very refreshing addition. I ate like four and had to run away, otherwise I'd eat them all :)