Just down the street from my neighborhood is a Polish restaurant that we like to frequent regularly. The food is amazingly delicious (maybe I am biased since I am Polish). Everything made fresh using authentic Polish recipes. We always walk away full and happy.
One evening after dinner I decided to venture into a Polish market area they have set up on the side of the restaurant. They sell everything from borsch soup to various Polish cheese and meats. On this particular night they had a box of cookies that caught my eye. The label read “Kolacky Cookies”. They reminded me so much of cookies my Grandmother used to make so I decided to purchase them and bring them home. The cookies were amazing and they brought back so many childhood memories.
Kolacky cookies are sometimes called Polish foldovers. The spelling of the cookie varies from place to place. They have been known as kołaczki, kolaci, kolache, kolacky, kolachky and koláče. Kolaczki are cream cheese dough cookies that are either round, square or diamond shaped. The center of the cookie is traditionally filled with some sort of fruit jam or preserve. Variations include apricot jam, raspberry preserve, prune puree and sweet cheese. Some alternative fillings include almond paste, poppyseed compote, strawberry jam, blueberry preserve and pineapple puree.
I decided I wanted to make my own Kolacky cookies so I researched various recipes and tried out a few. The recipe I have included in this blog is a variation of a recipe I found to work the best in regards to taste and ease of preparation. The dough does need to be chilled overnight or at least for a couple of hours, so please note this when figuring in your prep time.
Kolacky Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup any flavor fruit jam or preserves
1/3 cup powdered sugar (used for decoration)
In a stand up mixer add cream cheese and butter. Mix the two ingredients until smooth. Slowly add the flour until well it is blended. Remove the dough from the mixer and shape into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill overnight or for several hours in the refrigerator.
Remove chilled dough ball from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut the dough into 2 1/2 inch squares. Place about a 1/2 tsp of jam or preserves in the center of the dough square. Fold in the opposite corners and pinch the dough together. Place the formed dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes (or until slightly golden brown) in the preheated oven. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.
Prairie Pepper 