Let's Talk About Kolaches
My dad’s family immigrated to the U.S. from what was Czechoslovakia at the time. His father’s family came from Kolín originally, and his mother’s family came from outside of Brno. We don’t keep a lot of Czech customs in our family, but the one thing we have kept is kolaches.
If you don’t live in a place where a lot of Czech immigrants settled, you might not have heard of these pastries! Even in Chicago, most people think I’m talking about Polish Kołaczki (which are also delicious). But Czech kolaches are their own thing, they’re a yeasty, brioche-y dough, filled with fruit, or sweet cheese, or poppy seed paste, or whatever delicious thing you have on hand, and usually sprinkled with a streusel-like topping called posypka.
I tried to make my grandmother’s recipe a few times many years ago, and they came out miserably. At the time I figured I just wasn’t good at baking, and stopped trying. Then, I got the contract for Let’s Make Bread! I knew I had to bake my way through every recipe in that book in order to draw them well. I was terrible at first, but slowly gained skill and some decent instincts about working with dough. When I finished drawing that book, I decided to try to make kolaches again. I still wasn’t great at first! But over a few batches, I improved a lot. I’ve also tweaked the recipe to adjust to my own taste and preferences, and now I feel pretty confident making these. When I was at Seafood City several weeks back, I bought a jar of ube jam specifically for this purpose.
ANYWAY. My kolache recipe is coming soon, I promise. Give me a week or two to adjust the recipe for public consumption, and I’ll post it here.
How’s the book going, Sarah:
182/192 pages done!!! Only ten pages left! I should have finished coloring last week, but I spent some time placing all my art files into the indesign layout so my bartender friend Mark could review it; I also spent time reviewing the proofreader edits. Now that those tasks are done, coloring the last ten pages should be quick work.
Upcoming things:
I have actual dates for the Wisconsin Book Festival’s Spring Celebration in Madison! I will be discussing Let’s Make Bread! on Friday, October 24 at 6 PM at Madison Central Library, Community Room 302. Save the date!
What I’m into lately:
I found a black swallowtail caterpillar in my potted parsley! I decided I wanted to witness the mysteries of nature up close, so I made it a little terrarium. We have named it Sheila. Sheila has tripled in size monching her way through the parsley cuttings I bring her. Sheila shed her entire skin once and then turned around and ate it!! Sheila’s kind of gross. I’m enjoying her company, though. She eats parsley like a cartoon character eats corn on the cob.
What Toki’s into lately:
Getting those good good chin scratchies that he so richly deserves.
