Cream Cheese! Peach! Streusel! Brioche! All really great words in their own right, but put them together and they are more than the sum of their parts. And you know us central Texans love a kolache moment. They’re just perfect. Make these your next Saturday morning project! Bonus: this brioche recipe from Nicole Rucker’s “Dappled” will do double (triple! quadruple!) duty as your Thanksgiving rolls, your Christmas cinnamon buns, and your everyday sandwich bread. One bread recipe to rule them all! Hip hip, hooray!!!
Brioche Dough
*Recipe from Nicole Rucker’s “Dappled”
Makes 12 buns
79 ml (1/3 cup) warm whole milk (100-110 degrees F)
79 ml (1/3 cup) warm water (100-110 degrees F)
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
349 grams (2 3/4 cups) bread flour
3 tablespoons sugar + 1 teaspoon for activating yeast
1 large egg + 3 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp, plus more for greasing bowl
Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Peach Filling
1 small ripe yellow peach
1/2 cup of your favorite peach preserves
Streusel Topping
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Egg wash
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
For the dough:
In a small bowl, combine the milk and water with yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar and stir until yeast dissolves. Let the mixture sit in a warm place until it begins to foam, about 5 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine flour, sugar, and the foamy yeast mixture. Start the motor on low speed and add the egg, egg yolks, salt, and vanilla.
Continue mixing on low speed just until the dough starts to come together. Turn the motor off and allow the dough to sit inside the mixer for 15 minutes. Return the mixer to low speed and slowly add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. After all 3 additions of butter, mix until the butter has been totally incorporated into the dough, about 5 minutes. This slow-mixing technique is how you get the silky, strong brioche dough structure. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, 15-20 minutes. It will be slightly sticky but shouldn’t tear easily.
Lightly grease a large bowl with butter. Put the dough inside and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in the fridge overnight, or up to 24 hours, before proceeding with your desired recipe.
To make the kolaches:
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
After the overnight rest in the fridge, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces.
Now it’s time to boule your dough! This means forming tiny seamless balls of dough. I do this by using my hand as a cage and dragging the dough around in small circles on the counter until it builds a bit of tension and the seam on the bottom disappears. THIS VIDEO does a great job at showing this process and explaining it well. Do this with all 12 pieces and then place on the prepared baking sheets. Each baking sheet with have 6 balls of dough.
Dust the tops of the dough balls with a bit of flour and cover the baking sheets loosely with plastic wrap. Place baking sheets in a warm area (about 75 degrees F) for about 1 hour, until the balls have risen and increased in size by half.
While the dough proofs, make the fillings and streusel.
To make the streusel:
Stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and melted butter in a small bowl until crumbly. Set aside to let butter solidify. Before using, stir again to create fine crumbs.
To make the cream cheese filling:
Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, egg yolk, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl or bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer to a piping bag or ziptop bag to easily pipe into kolaches before baking.
To make the peach filling:
Chop peach up into small squares. Add to small bowl and mix with peach jam.
To make your eggwash:
Whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water together in a small bowl until smooth.
To assemble and bake kolaches:
Position 2 oven racks in the center zone of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
When the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and use your fingers to create a 2-inch wide indentation in the center of each ball of dough. You want them to go almost all the way down to the baking sheet but without putting a hole in the bottom.
Gently brush outer edges and sides of dough balls with the eggwash.
Pipe about a tablespoon (a little extra if you’re me) of the cream cheese filling into the bottom of each indentation. Create a little well in the cream cheese and top with a spoonful of your peach filling.
Sprinkle each kolache with the streuse.
Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate baking sheets top to bottom and front to back and continue to bake until the kolaches are a deep golden brown, another 10-12 minutes. Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes. They’ll keep well in a sealed container at room temp for up to 2 days.
