Kolaches

Every self-respecting Texan knows that it's impossible to make the drive from Dallas to Austin without stopping in West, Texas at the Czech Stop. For as long as I can remember, my family has always stopped in West to buy dozens of kolaches.

I have to clarify something for y'all: kolaches are sweet bread with fruit, cream cheese, or ricotta cheese filling-- NOT sausage in a roll.

Let's review-- Pigs in a blanket (while still SO delicious, definitely not a kolache):

Kolaches:

Delicious, buttery rolls with a raspberry cream cheese filling and crumble topping-- yum. I adapted this recipe from Saveur Magazine. 

Kolaches

Yields: 16 kolaches

For the Dough

1/2 cup warm water

1 tbsp active dry yeast (1/4 oz. package)

3 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar

4 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup warm milk

For the Crumble

1 tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1. Combine water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until activated. 

2. Beat butter and remaining 3 tbsp sugar together. Add the egg yolk and salt. Then, add the yeast mixture, flour, and milk. Combine and knead until no longer really sticky. 

3. Grease a bowl and add the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes, or until doubled. I turned on my oven for 3 minutes, then I turned it off and let the dough rise in there. It was about 140 degrees. 

4. Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. 

5. Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Pinch them into round mounds, and place them 1/2" apart on the prepared pan. Brush with 1 tbsp of melted butter. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

6. Prepare the filling (see below) and the crumble. (To make the crumble, combine the three ingredients until it's crumbly). When the kolaches have risen, press the center of each one down with your fingers. Put 1 tbsp of filling into each and sprinkle the crumble topping on each one. 

7. Bake at 375 degrees fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. 

Kolache Filling

6 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 tsp lemon juice

3 tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk

1. Combine all of the ingredients together until completely smooth.

For fruit filling, use jam. I used raspberry jam. 

Cinnamon Sugar Soft Pretzel Bites

 It seems I've been all about soft pretzels, muffins, and donuts as of late. Any objections? Good. I made this recipe a few weeks ago for a work potluck, but there wasn't time to photograph the pretzel bites. I had to make the recipe again (Oh, woe is me!).

These taste just like little bite-sized pieces of those delicious cinnamon sugar mall pretzels. I've also included a cream cheese dipping sauce, which is the perfect amount of tanginess to go with these delicious pretzel bites!

Cinnamon Sugar Soft Pretzel Bites

Yields: about 100 small pretzel bites

1 cup warm water
1 tbsp (or 1 packet) dry active yeast
2 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 to 3 cups flour

3 cups hot water (I microwaved mine in a pyrex for about 4 minutes)
1/3 cup baking soda

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

1. Combine warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with your finger, then let it sit for about 10 minutes to activate.

2. Add the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar, the brown sugar, veggie oil, and salt. Stir. Attach the dough hook and add the flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Knead in the mixer for about 4 minutes or so, or until elastic and smooth.

3. Put in a greased glass bowl and let rise, covered, in a warm oven (about 140-150 degrees fahrenheit) for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. After removing from the oven, preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.

4. Combine hot water and baking soda. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Take one part and cover the other parts with a kitchen towel so they don't dry out. Roll the section into a snake about 28-30 inches long. Cut it in half, then each in half again. (4 snakes) Divide each into about 1-1/4" sections.

5. Dip each bite into the hot water/baking soda mixture, then place on a silpat-lined (or parchment paper lined) baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining sections of dough.

6. Bake at 425 for 7-10 minutes, or until the tops are golden.

7. Roll in the melted butter, let sit on a plate for about 1 minute to let the butter soak in, and then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.


Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 of a regular pack)
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk, optional

Combine cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat. Add milk, if needed, to attain the desired consistency.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread

Yup. That's right. Pumpkin. Cheesecake. Bread. It has the best of all worlds.

I mixed this recipe up a little bit. This is my favorite pumpkin bread recipe. I love it! I found this recipe years ago. It's called "Pumpkin Pie Bread." This bread tastes like pumpkin pie, people. Pumpkin pie. In bread form.

Also, I'm kind of obsessed with cheesecake swirls, so I added one of those. Delish.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread

Yields: 2 loaves (either 8x4 or 9x5-- I did one of each!)

Pumpkin Bread Batter

3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup veggie oil (or canola oil)
4 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin purée
1/2 cup water

Cheesecake Swirl

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease two loaf pans (8x4 or 9x5 will work perfectly).

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

3. Beat together in a large bowl (a stand mixer works well) the sugar with the veggie oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each egg. Add the pumpkin.

4. Add the dry ingredients slowly alternating with the water. Mix until combined.

5. Beat together the cheesecake swirl ingredients until smooth.

6. Pour a little more than half the batter between the two pans. Spread all of the cheesecake swirl batter in the two pans. Try to spread it out evenly, extending almost to the edges. Pour the remaining pumpkin batter on top and completely cover up the cheesecake swirl.

7. Bake for 55-70 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

8. Let the bread cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove them and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Store in plastic wrap.

Happy autumn! 

Interested in more pumpkin recipes? Click the pictures!

 

Brownie Cheesecake

Austin loves brownies. I love cheesecake. We had to marry the two. 

(NOTE: Austin also likes cheesecake, and I also like brownies. Don't worry.) 

Brownie Cheesecake

Yields: 1 9" cheesecake

1 (18.4 oz) package brownie mix (I used Pillsbury Family Size Fudge Brownie Mix)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
5 eggs (divided use)
3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Note: The oil, water, and 2 of the eggs are for the brownie mix. If you're using a different brownie mix, you may need different amounts or ingredients to make your brownie mix.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Spray the bottom of a 9" springform pan with cooking spray.

2. Prepare brownie mix with veggie oil, water, and 2 eggs. Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for 35 minutes or until set.

3. Beat cream cheese with a mixer until fluffy. Add three eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each egg. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan on top of the brownie.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees fahrenheit. Bake the cheesecake for 50 minutes or until set (to check doneness-- tap the side of the springform pan with a wooden spoon. If the entire thing jiggles a lot, it needs a little more time. The center should jiggle when the cheesecake it done, but it shouldn't seem "liquidy.")

5. To prevent cracking: When the cheesecake is done, crack the oven open for 5-10 minutes with the oven turned off before taking the cheesecake out.

6. Refrigerate the cheesecake until set and cooled (at least 4 hours).

Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is here. It's lovely. I haven't blogged in a while. I've been busy.

Here's Austin. He's great. 

The leaves are covering the ground all around Provo and they make a very satisfying crunch when I step on them. It's time for pumpkin flavored everything.

Recipe tweaked from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yields 24 muffins

8 oz cream cheese (room temp)

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 can pumpkin purée 

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups AP flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

5 tbsp flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

1. Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Set aside. 

2. Preheat oven to 350. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and veggie oil.

3. While that's beating, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Slowly add this to the wet ingredients. 

4. Using a food scoop, scoop batter about halfway up muffin papers in a muffin tin. Make small indents  in the batter and add about 1 tsp of the cream cheese mixture. Cover the cream cheese with about 1 tbsp more of the pumpkin batter. 

5. Using a pastry cutter, cut together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter until it resembles crumbs. Sprinkle atop the unbaked muffins.

6. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

Bon appétit!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Imagine for a second you live in a house made of chocolate. Barring the constant melting, that house would be SWEET (pun intended). You could eat anything you want, and the smell would be beyond your wildest dreams.

That, my dear friends, is how my house smells right now. My home is chocolate bliss right now.

I decided to send a package to my sister who lives in San Francisco. I wanted to include in the package something baked and delicious for her to eat. She's been doing some weird Keto diet, but she's promised to abandon her diet for a day if I send something homemade. 

I made a mini pound cake to go with the big one so my family here would have something to taste. I feel like it's pretty cruel to bake something so fragrant and chocolatey and then just ship it all off without anyone here getting to try it. This pound cake is so good! The chocolate flavor is just so rich and deep. I tweaked the recipe from Tutti Dolci. 

Chocolate Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Ribbon
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract 
Batter
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp pecan pieces (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixer bowl at medium speed until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. Combine sour cream and buttermilk in a small bowl. Reduce speed to low and add half of flour mixture, beating just to combine. Add sour cream mixture, then finish with remaining flour mixture.

Pour half the batter into prepared pan; dollop with cream cheese mixture and swirl layers together with a knife or wooden skewer. Top with remaining batter and smooth with an offset spatula; sprinkle with chocolate chips and pecans, if desired. Bake for 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back to the touch. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes; carefully remove cake from pan and cool completely on wire rack. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

There's the cream cheese ribbon! The tangy flavor of the cream cheese really balances the rich chocolate flavor of the cake. 

The Cutest Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

So, I have a confession to make.

I don't like chocolate cake that much. I know, I know. What's wrong with me? There's something about it. I mean, I might crave it on a very, very rare occasion. 

The only type of chocolate cake I really, truly love is red velvet. And we all know that cupcakes are always better than regular cake. 

Yesterday I got home from class and didn't feel like getting to my homework immediately (still haven't gotten to that feeling yet, ever). I decided to make red velvet cupcakes instead. 

After searching for about ten minutes for the perfect recipe, I found this recipe. I tweaked it a little (what's new?)

Y'all. They were PERFECT. The consistency of the cupcake was so smooth and soft, and I used my personal favorite cream cheese frosting to top them off. This is now my go-to recipe for red velvet. 

Adapted from The Boastful Baker. 

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yields: 36 adorably mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 cup milk plus 1 tsp white vinegar)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp red food coloring

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, slightly softened

5 tbsp butter (slightly softened-- pliable but not room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Line the mini muffin pans with 36 mini cupcake papers. 

2. Mix the buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, food coloring, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer on the lowest setting until it's well incorporated. 

It looks like I had a red egg.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients with the hand mixer until there are no more lumps. 

4. Using a cookie scoop, scoop the batter into the mini cupcake papers, filling each one up almost 3/4 of the way up. 

Super out of focus. Sorry, guys. 

5. Tap the filled muffin pans lightly on the counter a few times to get the bubbles out. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, or until they bounce back up when you touch the top. (You can also test with a toothpick but I always just touch the top. If your finger leaves a dent, they're not ready.)

6. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter. Whip until it's light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix. Really slowly, add the powdered sugar while the mixer is going. Mix it until it's really smooth and fluffy. 

7. Tape the corner of a quart-sized bag (for reinforcement), then cut the corner off about 1/2 inch from the very tip. Insert a decorator's star tip. Add the frosting to the bag and decorate the cupcakes once they've cooled. Add sprinkles (because sprinkles make everything happier). 

Haha! Thanks for helping with the eating process, Haley!