VEGAN KOLACHES

For four years, I had a kolache baking business in Colorado. The Kolache Bee did well and I shipped all over Colorado. In 2018, my husband and I went plant-based for health reasons and I could not figure out a way to bake kolaches and honor our new lifestyle. So I put the kolache baking away for a while until I learned how to bake using plant-based ingredients. Voila! Here we are today with a vegan kolache recipe! I am very happy with the results! I hope you are too!

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Kolaches are part of my heritage. I am 3/4 Czech and grew up with kolaches for holidays and special events. We didn’t have them around our house all the time but there were always trays full of poppyseed, prune, and apricot kolaches at my grandmother’s house when we visited for the holidays. My favorite was apricot but since then I have learned to make my own fillings featuring Colorado fruits such as sour cherry and vanilla peach bourbon.

What makes the kolaches vegan kolaches? There is no egg, dairy, or lard in the recipe.

Does it still have fat? Yes. There is fat in the vegan butter and vegan shortening.

Are they soft, light, and fluffy like regular kolaches? Yes.

This batch makes one dozen. The key things to follow for soft, vegan kolaches:

This recipe has four risings and will take about five hours to finish. You can read your email or vacuum during the rising times.

The first rise is creating the sponge. Don’t skip.

Do not overbeat or over-knead the dough. You want the dough to be soft and pliable, not tough. You do not want too much gluten to form.

It is OK if doesn’t completely hold its shape like bread dough.

Use the “double in bulk” technique rather than just time. I live at 4980 feet so my times may be different. Go by the look and feel of your dough. You may not need 2 cups of AP flour to get the dough consistency required.

The best yeast to use is Red Star Platinum yeast.

Vegan Kolaches

Enough dough to make one dozen fruit-filled kolaches

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Course Dessert

Cuisine Czech

Servings 12

Ingredients

1/2 pkg dried yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 cup AP flour
2 tbsp vegan butter
2.5 tbsp vegan shortening
1/3 cup Just Egg
1/8 cup aquafaba
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup sugar
2 cup AP flour
vegan butter, melted

Pocepka

1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegan butter

Instructions

Make the sponge by combining the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes or until bubbly and doubled.
Combine vegan butter, shortening, Just Egg, aquafaba, and salt in a large bowl or mixer.
Add the sponge mix to the butter mixture. Combine well.
Slowly blend in 2 cups of AP flour or enough to make a sticky dough. Do not overbeat.
Pour the dough onto a well-floured board. Using a pastry blender tool, fold in enough flour to create a smoother dough. Gently knead for 1-2 minutes. Do not over knead. You want a soft, pliable dough not a tough dough. It is OK if it soft and supple.
Grease a large bowl and weigh the bowl.
Second Rise: Place dough in the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Be patient. Depending your area, it couldbe 30 minutes, it could be an hour.
Weigh the bowl and dough. Subtract the weight of the bowl from the total and that will be your dough weight.
Pour out the dough onto a floured board and cut into 12 pieces, weighing each piece to 1/12th of your final dough weight. Mine traditionally are around 1.5 ounces.
Roll each piece into a ball. I roll and then pull the dough underneath and tuck it into the bottom of the dough ball. You want each ball of dough to be smooth. No cracks or the dough will rise with imperfections for the next step.
Place the dough balls in a greased roughly 9 X 11 baking pan spacing them out evenly. The disposable aluminum pans work great.
Third Rise: Baste the dough balls with melted butter and let rise until double in bulk
Filling: Using a shot glass, dip the shot glass into flour and insert the glass into a dough ball. Do not puncture the bottom of the dough. Just make an indention large enough to hold one tablespoon of filling.
Continue pressing indentions in the remaining balls of dough, using the floured shot glass to gently spread the indentions out so each kolache touches another kolache and the outside kolaches touch the sides of the pan.
Gently prick the bottom of each kolache. Do not go all the way through to the bottom of the pan or your filling will drip through to the bottom of the pan.
Fill each kolache with one tablespoon of filling. Do not overfill.
Make the pocepka by combining the three ingredients in a bowl until about the consistency of cornmeal.
Drizzle pocepka on top of each kolaches.
Fourth Rise: Set the kolaches aside and let rise for 30 minutes to an hour until they are nice and fluffy looking.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Bake the kolaches for 15 – 20 minutes, rotating at 10 minutes and watching closely. Depending on your oven and altitude, your kolaches may brown sooner, so pay close attention during the baking process. Use your eye rather than just time.
When done, remove from the oven and immediately baste with melted vegan butter.
I know it’s hard, but let cool 30 minutes before eating. The filling needs to set.
Prost!