History, Temperature, and Kolaches

History

It’s time for everyone’s favorite missed named Breakfast Food, Kolaches. Now those of us lucky enough to live in an area with a large Czech or Polish heritage have been eating these little buggers for years and know just how great they are. Sausage and cheese baked right into a bun is what it’s all about in the H Town donut shops. But did you know that those are not Kolaches? They are Klobasneks, a cousin to the true Kolache which is a pastry consisting of semi-sweet yeast dough baked with fillings such as fruits, poppy seed, prunes, and cream cheese, often served open-faced[1]. But here in Texas, as in most of the Western World we group them all under the name of Kolache.

Today we are making the Sausage and Cheese verity, so don’t worry if that first paragraph had you worried about your Poppy Seed intake. This recipe starts with a dough I learned in culinary school that I modified and scaled down[2]. To make it, and have it come out great each time I will have a quick lesson on Temperature.

Temperature

In bread production Temperature is key in all stages, and it is all Yeasts fault. If your temperature is too high it kills the yeast, you murderer. If it is too low then your yeast never activates and dies too, also makes you a murderer. There are many ways to control the temp of this dough but we will use Basic Temperature to do it today.

Basic Temperature is a temp given with a recipe that helps you keep your dough the same temp. coming out of the mixer every time[3]. This will give your dough a identical rise and proof time every time, meaning every time you make the dough the yeast is active for the same amount of time, which gives you the same amount of flavor development, which makes it taste the same every time. Out side of a bake shop this has little use except when cooking in a very hot or very cold kitchen.

It goes like this; our Basic Temp for this dough is 60°C/140°F. Now subtract your room Temp. and your flour Temp[4]. from Basic Temp. The difference is what you water temperature should be. If you don’t like going through all that add water around 20C/68F. It’s how I cheat[5]. Let’s get cooking.

The Recipe

· 800 grams AP Flour

· 100 grams HG Flour[6]

· 50 grams Milk Powder

· 500 grams Water

· 20 grams Dry Yeast[7]

· 35 grams Salt

· 60 grams Sugar

· 100 grams Unsalted Butter

· Sausage Links[8]

· Medium or Mild Shredded Cheese

1) Take all those ingredients except for the salt and butter and put them in your mixer. Knead it on low for 5 good minutes. This may cause you mixer some grief, it will be a stiff dough and is tough on the mixer. If your mixer stats to heat up put an ice pack on it, it works. If you are still worried mix it by hand you pansy.

2) Cut the butter into a few pats while all that is mixing. Then dump the salt in and add the butter one pat at a time. Crank that mixer up to Medium speed and let it go for 10 minutes this time. The butter will get mixed in as it also greases the side of the bowl, letting the dough knead easier.[9]

3) Grease a bowl with cook spray and put that dough in it after it finishes kneading. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm dry place for 30 minutes. Punch down dough and portion and then begin to portion it out with a dough cutter, plastic scraper, or bench scraper. I do mine at about 60 grams, but if you are using bigger sausage you will want larger portions. DO NOT SHAPE PORTIONS; JUST PUT THEM ASIDE IN ORDER OF BEING CUT.[10]

4) After all the dough is portioned take the first one you cut off and begin shaping it. Work from first to last, this gives the dough time to rest so when you shape it is not tough. Here are my sub steps for shaping.

a) Roll dough into a ball quickly, without working too much.

b) Dust counter top with flour, not a lot.

c) Place dough ball and on flour and press down with the area between your first and second knuckles.

d) Dust the top of dough with a little flour and using a rolling pin roll into a rectangle 1 inch longer then you sausage and about wide enough that you think you can roll the sausage up in.

5) Place sausage in shaped dough, and sprinkle in some cheese. Fold in the ends and roll the dough up. Make sure to pinch all seams.

6) Place kolaches seam side down on a greased baking sheet ½ an inch apart from each other in all directions. Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 60 minutes or until doubled in size. Pay attention to size because if it’s cold in your kitchen it might take longer, but if it’s hot it will take less. Preheat oven to 350F.

7) Brush on an egg wash (egg yoke and milk mixed together), and bake till browned perfectly. Baking time will very by oven but for me it’s around 15 to 20 minutes. Remember to rotate tray halfway to ovoid hotspots.

8) Cool in pan for until you can safely remove them to a rack. Eat and enjoy.

That my friends, is basically it. Play with this recipe, make it your own. Add jalapeños, or use bacon, just have fun. I have this idea to use beef, caramelized onions and gruyere for a French dip kolache, but that’s my idea, get your own. I added a bunch of foot notes for my brother Dave’s Birthday, he loves foot notes. Any question, you know where to find me.

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[1] Thank you Wikipedia.

[2] Thanks to my friend Diana who helped me do this over the phone and Facebook.

[3] Yeast works best in dough between 75-80F.

[4] Yes, put that thermometer in that pile of flour.

[5] If you liked doing all that Math then you can calculate you own base temp by using this formula. Start with End Temp which would be around 77F. So 77 X 3 =231. Now add Room Temp, Flour Temp, and Mixer Friction Factor which is usually around 25F and subtract from 231. That number will be Basic Temperature. If you want to know your mixers actual Friction Factor do the math found on this page.

[6] Can use Bread Flour

[7] Also called Bread Machine Yeast these days.

[8] I been using Eckrich heat and serve breakfast sausage.

[9] If you have a new Kitchen Aid Mixer with the wider bowl add 3 to 4 minutes kneading time. The wider bowl gives it a less friction during kneading.

[10] The dough will need to rest and relax, if you don’t let it, it will be too elastic to shape and roll out.

Root Beer Cake

Root Beer Cake! That's right, I said it, quake with fear! Cake made wit root beer is probably the best cake I could think of. I made this cake for a Cub Scout Cake Auction, it was the last cake sold and it sold for the most money. The sad part is that it sold based almost entirely on my reputation with no real promise how it would taste, especially since it was missing an ingredient, but we'll get to that. First the recipe just as I found it on saveur.com, another great resource.

Here is my cake covered finished. Turning fondant brown requires kneading in cocoa powder, not the funnest thing. The foam is extra icing I piped out with a Big Star Tip. I had about 30 minuets for cover this cake and decorate it so it was far from the best fondant work I have ever done, but the icing foam let me cover up most of my mistakes.

2 cups butter, plus 1 tsp. to grease pan
2 1⁄2 cups cake flour, plus 1 tbsp. for dusting cake pan
2 1⁄2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup root beer
5 tsp. root beer extract (preferably Zatarain's)
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
4 room-temperature eggs
4 1⁄2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp. Cream

1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9" × 13" pan with 1 tsp. of the butter; dust with 1 tbsp. of the cake flour; tap bottom of pan to remove excess flour.

2. Sift remaining cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl; set aside.

3. Whisk together root beer and 2 tsp. of the root beer extract in a bowl; set aside.

4. Beat sugar and 1 cup of the butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating briefly after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and root beer mixture, waiting for each to be incorporated before adding the next. Mix briefly, then transfer batter to pan; smooth out top.

5. Bake, rotating once, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool

6. Put confectioners' sugar and remaining butter into a bowl; beat with an electric mixer to combine. Add cream and remaining root beer extract; beat to make a fluffy frosting. Spread frosting on cake, making swirls and whorls. Decorate with root beer candies.

Now root beer extract proved hard to find when it came time to make my cake so I just had to do without. It did effect the flavor so I defiantly recommend using it, order it online if you have to, but don't skip it like I did. I tried to make up for it by brushing the cake with root beer before I iced it, it helped some, and kept the cake moist, but did not make up for the lack of extract.

The icing I made with root beer and it came out great. It is important to let it chill in the fridge, so make sure to make it first. This would even be good with just vanilla frosting too, like a float.

The recipe says to serve it with root beer candies, which I think is a horrible idea. Root beer candies are dense and hard, not something you want on top of your cake. For me it would be vanilla ice cream, strawberries, or milano cookies. Think about it.

This recipe was for a sheet cake but just as easy for layers. Mine was 4 layers covered in fondant, not something I suggest everyone try. In fact I think there is a lot to be said for this to be a sheet cake. This cake is fun and different a great cake to serve to guests, and a good way to show off to them too. Who could really turn down a piece of root beer cake?