Recipe: Kolaches!
Jak se máš, y’all? Here, at long last, is my kolache recipe. This is more of a traditional Czech version like my grandmother made than the Texas-Czech (Czexan!) style. I messed around with my grandmother’s recipe, my great-grandmother’s recipe, and a few different modern recipes until I found the methods and amounts that work for me.
Writing recipes is extremely difficult!! I just finished my fourth (!!) cookbook, so that feels like an odd thing to say. But I had knowledgeable and experienced chef coauthors on the first three, and most of the recipes in Let’s Make Cocktails! have 3-5 ingredients. Writing this recipe out precisely and thoroughly was not easy.
I’ve gone back and forth on this recipe several times, and I’m sure I’ll make even more changes to it going forward. I’m not super confident my conversion measurements are right! I’m not at all sure that I’ve described or illustrated certain steps very well! But I have to show you what my great-grandmother Aloisie’s recipe looks like.
I love this so much. I love “moderate owen” and “wanilla” and “crumps” and I love how she typed up the side of the card when she ran out of space. Aloisie was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States as a teenager, so honestly this is pretty outstanding English, all things considered.
My dad told me once that she never measured a thing when she cooked, and that it was a miracle anyone got her to write the recipe down at all. I’m sure my recipe has lots of inaccuracies that I’ll fix over time, but I am confident my recipe is at least a little more carefully documented than Aloisie’s.
I’m going to keep working on the recipe, though, and hopefully someday soon I’ll have a whole minicomic about kolaches to share. I’m fascinated with the different styles of kolaches in Czechia. Here are a few in-process spreads:
In Texas, where my parents live, kolaches are widespread enough that you’ll find them at bakeries, grocery stores, and even gas stations. However: most of these will be buns filled with meat. These are not proper kolaches, but klobásníky. They use the same sweet dough as kolaches, but wrapped around sausages! Lately I have been making these with longganisa (the most delicious sausage ever), and they are pretty incredible. Texas-Czech-Filipino fusion! Maybe next week’s newsletter will be more about that.
How’s the book going, Sarah:
It’s done! It’s available for preorder! It comes out in April! I think we do one more proofread before it goes to the printer.
Upcoming things:
I will be at SLICE in St. Louis on October 18!
I will be in Madison at the Wisconsin Book Festival on October 24!
What I’m into lately:
I’m reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams for my book club, and it’s very nice. It’s slow, and not terribly thrilling, but it’s quietly thoughtful in a way that my fresh-off-the-book brain really appreciates. I also finally watched K-Pop Demon Hunters and it was great. I can’t get the music out of my head. (“Heels, nails, blade, mascara / fit check for my napalm era” is a lyric that will live in my head forever.)
What Toki’s into lately:
I’m sad to report that my innocent son has turned to a life of petty crime. He’ll swipe your seat the second you get up!
