Traditional Hungarian Kolaches are cookies made with a cream cheese dough and filled with apricot jam; they are very common at Christmastime. These are the type of cookies that makes it hard to just have one! Perfect with an afternoon coffee on a stormy winter day!
Back in September of this year, I posted my recipe for Dried Apricot Jam, which is the jam I’m using for this recipe. If you have the time, I would highly recommend you make a small batch of the Dried Apricot Jam, because nothing is better than homemade jam in these Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches!
Dried Apricot Jam is very thick, so it works very well when being baked into a cookie. I tried baking these same cookies with a marmalade, but the stuff just ran right out of the cookie and spilled onto the baking sheet. What a mess!? You need a very thick jam to get this cookie just right.
Store bought jam will work just fine too. I recommend you buy a jam that you love to eat on toast or on a scone. The jam you use in this cookie will be the dominant flavour, so be sure to use you one you really like.
WHAT IS A KOLACHE?
A kolache is basically a type of pasty that puffs up when baked, and is wrapped around a jam or a preserve of some sort. Kolaches originated as a wedding dessert in Europe, but have become quite a popular confection in North America.
I think of kolaches as a danish. Danishes are often filled with cream cheese and a fruit or berry topping. In the case of Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches, the dough itself is made with cream cheese.
In fact, the dough is not comprised of much else! It’s probably one of the easiest you’ll ever make, and it’s most certainly easy to work with! Made with cream cheese, butter, and flour – it’s budget friendly too! Use full fat, good cream cheese, it really does work best!
MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES!
Did you know that I’ve been posting a 24 Cookies of Christmas series for a few years now? There are over 100 Christmas cookie recipes that you can find right here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen! To make it easier to find, I have created a page for each series. Just click on the image below and you’ll find the full series for that volume all one page!
FOLDING THE DOUGH OVER
The number one question I get about this recipe is how to get the dough to stay in an overlapping position while the cookies are baking. You see, Dear Reader, as that simple and delicious cream cheese dough bakes, it rises. When dough rises, it sometimes pulls in from the sides as it puffs up. Think about when you make a homemade pizza. The dough is right to the edge of the pan when it goes in the oven, but as the dough puffs us, it pulls in a bit. The same applies here.
When you fold the dough over, there are a few things you can do to make sure it stays that way. First, really pull the dough over so that it is overlapping the bottom fold quite a bit. Don’t be afraid to really lift and pull the dough. It’s very forgiving. Once folded over, gently, but firmly, push the top layer down onto the bottom layer. As long as you don’t push all of the jam out, you’re good!
One of the main causes of the folds not sticking is that the surface on which you rolled out the dough was floured to heavily. Dry flour will obviously prevent the dough from sticking to itself. Before filling the cut out dough, try brushing the dough lightly with a pastry brush to get that excess flour out of the way.
APRICOT SUBSTITUTION:
Ah! I’m glad you asked. You can use any fruit or berry combination that is thick and will not run. You can use any apple butter/jam, blueberries, raspberries, and even strawberry and rhubarb jam would work terrifically in these!
Not feeling sweet today? You could make the kolaches savoury with a dollop of spiced chutney, or a smear of sun dried tomato pesto. Add a few dried herbs like oregano or thyme to the dough to up the savoury game!
MORE CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONS!
In some cases, we want more than a cookie. That’s why I have two more Christmas-themed collections you might want to consider. The first, is my 12 Bundt Cakes of Christmas, and the second is my 12 Biscotti of Christmas. Click on the image below to see each collection all on one page with links to each recipe!
STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING
Unfortunately, kolaches should never be frozen or stored for any length of time. These cookies will stay fresh for about 2 days at the most. Keep them loosely covered in a container set in a cool place. Do not refrigerate. Refrigeration will cause condensation to form and will affect the texture of the dough.
CONCLUSION:
Kolaches, unfortunately, do not freeze well. Nor do they keep in the fridge. The pastry will lose its freshness rather quickly. I would recommend that you bake kolaches to enjoy the same or next day. You won’t want to store them any longer than that.
The good news is that you can make the dough up and keep it in your fridge until you’re ready to use it. It will last at least 3-4 days in there. You can bake off some now and save the dough to bake the rest later!
Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup apricot preserves
- 1/4 cup sanding sugar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, use a hand-held mixer to beat together the butter and the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour and salt. Beat into the butter mixture.
- Divide the cookie dough into four equal portions and flatten each portion to 1/2 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- When ready to assemble and bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Remove one portion of the dough from the fridge and roll to 1/8th of an inch thick on a lightly floured surface. The dough is sticky so be sure to flour your rolling pin too.
- Cut the rolled dough into 2 inch squares. Remove scrap dough to the side to use later once the currant batch is baking.
- Place one tablespoon of the apricot preserves into the center of each square of dough. Gently fold up two opposite corners so that the slightly overlap. Push down just slightly with your finger to seal the dough together.
- Transfer the cookies to the baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each cookie.
- Sprinkle each cookie with a little sanding sugar and bake for 12 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, remove the cookies from the baking sheet to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Repeat steps 5 to 10 with the remaining 3 portions of dough in your fridge.
Nutrition
Margaret says
These look delicious! I am on an apricot kick, and will definitely be making these.
Marty says
What is sanding sugar?
And where can you get it?
Shawna says
Hi LB.
I made these for breakfast and they are absolutely delicious. However, could you please revisit the ratios of jam to pastry? I made the 2” squares as advised in the recipe and note that you say to put a tablespoon of filling in them, which doesn’t come close to fitting. So then I tried a teaspoon and it was still almost more than the 2“ squares could hold. Maybe your squares are larger than 2“?
I made the dried apricot jam, and it is a must! I had a jar of thick apricot jam on hand from the store and made a few Kolaches with it at the same time. It definitely doesn’t work with a store-bought jam. It blew the pastry apart, ran all over the place, and turned into hardball. Which we ate anyway as it still has its tooth-sticking virtues lol. TY!
Becky says
Just a comment about freezing. Your recipe is the exact one (minus the salt) I’ve been using for 30 years and I’ve been freezing them all that time. (No, I don’t have 30 year-old kolackies in my freezer – haha). I cool the baked cookies and freeze them without sprinkling the powdered sugar on them. When i want some, I just take out what I need, let em thaw at room temp or in the frig & sprinkle the sugar on them after they’ve thawed. I wonder why you haven’t had success freezing them. I actually bake multiple dozens of them with various fillings starting in the fall. At Easter, I’m still pulling the lovelies out of the freezer.
I came on here because I’m looking for recipes for making apricot filling. I’ll suggest to others that Solo brand fillings are great to use for this cookie as they’re very thick, but you’re right that a thick and not runny jam will work as well.
And I’ll end with this question because maybe you can help! No matter how much I press those two corners together in the middle (and often use cold water just like when you mend a pie crust), many of my kolacky’s middles will puff up and not stay overlapped while baking. Any recommendations?
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thank you for the laugh, Becky! 🙂 Getting those corners to stick can be very frustrating. I like to really overlap the corners before baking. Really pull the one corner over the top of the other. They will shrink back during the baking process, but should still have a slight overlap. Either way, they will be delicious and that’s all that matters, right? 🙂
Kim says
I check my cookies 1/2 way thru baking. If any popped open I pinch back together. I have even placed a toothpick that I dipped in powdered sugar (it doesn’t stick) in mine. Remove when cool. Once you dust with powdered sugar you can’t see the tiny hole.
byronethomas@gmail.com says
That’s a great tip, Kim. Thank you!
Marie Davis says
May I have your recipe and instructions for apricot filling. Thank you.
Monica Berg says
If I leave the dough in the fridge overnight how long do I wait before I can make and bake
Vickie says
Hi, I have my Grandma’s recipe that is over 60 years old.
We always roll the dough out on granulated sugar.
Jacob Zehel says
Can I use lard instead of butter??
Toni says
I make these and fill them with European style plum Jam. They are Yummy.
Cookie Meyer says
My family has Made these for 3 generations. My recipe is a pound each of flour, butter and cream cheese. My mother used Solo brand canned fruit “paste” and it works excellently. I’ve used apricot, poppy seed and a few of the other flavors and they all work and taste wonderful. My grandmother also had a cream cheese filling that was my favorite but sadly she didn’t write down the recipe. She was from Bohemia and had loads of terrific recipes.
And yes the following is my real name 😊
Susan says
Hello Byron!
I’m quite confused, in the post you give directions to freeze coaches and then in the conclusion you write the cookies don’t freeze well?
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thank you for catching that, Susan. Some blocks of text that relate to holiday cookies are inserted automatically because most Christmas cookies are freezer-friendly. I have updated the text accordingly. Thanks again!