České Tvarohové Koláčky (Little Czech Cakes with Farmer's cheese)

My cousin Danka came to visit us from them Czech Republic this past week and was kind enough to bake traditional Czech koláčky with me and my grandmother.  This is a very complicated recipe, one that my grandmother has never made since she moved to the US.  Having now baked it myself, I share her feelings.  But I will say these were a huge hit with my friends and officemates, so I may try my hand at them again soon.  The popularity of these little cakes in the US was recently covered in a great New York Times article, but this recipe is a bit different.  You'll see from reviewing the ingredients that there are many separate items to prepare for in this recipe, so it helps to be as organized as possible.

You will need:

For the tvarog filling:
800g farmer's cheese (= 2x1 lb containers)
2 egg yolks
70g confectioners' sugar (or more to taste)
rind of 1/2 lemon
packet of vanilla sugar

For the dough:
750g flour
2-1/2 packets of dry yeast (Fleischmanns 1/4 oz envelopes)
1/2 tsp salt
1 packet vanilla sugar
370mL milk
4 yolks

For the streusel:
100g margarine
150g Wondra flour (all-purpose is also fine if you can't find Wondra)
100g confectioner's sugar

For the jam:
1/2 jar (150g prune butter)
2 tsp confectioner's sugar
2 tsp rum
pinch of cinnamon (optional)

For the glaze:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

Also:
golden raisins
butter
extra rum
an extra egg yolk
a bit of extra milk

1. Prepare your dough, filling, and toppings
Begin by preparing the tvarog filling.  Combine the ingredients by hand and set aside.

For the dough, mix together the dry ingredients.

Warm your milk in the microwave for one minute and add it to the dry ingredients.  With your standing mixer or hand mixer, beat in the milk and then drop in your egg yolks one by one.  As is sometimes the consequence of having three cooks in the kitchen, we cheated and added the milk and eggs together, then added it to the mix.

Beat everything together until fully combined.

Separately, blend the margarine, sugar, and flour for your streusel topping.

Also separately, beat together the prune butter, confectioner's sugar, and rum with a fork.

Finally, separately whisk together your egg yolk and spoon of milk (sorry I don't have a picture).  Make sure to keep your eggs handy, since you may need to make more if you run out.

2. Assembly!
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Set up a floured board, with a bowl of extra flour nearby.

Using floured spoons, drop heaping tablespoons onto your board. Important: keep dipping the spoons back into the flour between uses.

Quickly press the dough into flat circular patties on your board.

Drop a small teaspoon of the tvarog mixture into the center of the dough and add 4-5 raisins.

Gently close your koláček, seal up any holes, and roll it in your hands for a few seconds.

Make them a few at a time, doing the same step to each one, to be more efficient.  Place the closed koláčky onto a greased baking sheet, seam side down.

Press a thumb into the center (our cousin insisted on using a small light bulb, but your thumb should be fine!).

Drop in a glob of prune butter and a bit of your streusel topping.

Brush the outsides with your yolk and milk mixture, then bake them for 15-20 minutes until they turn a deep golden brown.

While they are baking, melt a few tablespoons of butter with an extra dash of rum.  When you take the koláčky out, drizzle them with the melted butter.

Then transfer them to a cooling rack (my grandmother uses a tray).

Once cool, they can be stored in a box for a few days, if they even last that long!  The recipe yields about 40-50 koláčky, depending on how big you make them. They go best with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

You can also bake Makové Koláčky, using the poppy seed filling also seen in our Makové Závin, instead of the tvarog filling.  In that case, leave out the extra 4-5 raisins and stick with what's already in your poppy seed filling.  To simplify the tvarog filling, you can always just mix in the raisins in the very first step too, but Danka was very insistent on adding them separately - this way everyone gets some!

In other news, while my cousin was here, we celebrated my grandmother's (slightly belated) 90th birthday!  The delicious Black Forest Cake is from Cannelle Patisserie in Jackson Heights.

Happy Belated Birthday to my wonderful, talented, loving and wise grandmother, Jana Malish!  You are the best.  Thank you for everything you teach me, and for all the love you have in your heart for the world.

And here is our beloved Czech cousin Danka, enjoying her slice of cake.  We baked these scrumptious koláčky together the following day.  Thank you for baking with us!  Děkujeme za pečení s námi!