Kolacxzki Cookies, Timeless Tradition.

Every holiday season my mother and I made these traditional polish cream cheese cookies and they are divine. Yet not all fruit filled cookies are the same. This recipe gives you soft, melt in your mouth cookies. I’ve had cookies from bakeries that were on the crunchier side. A mystery I’ll never figure out, same cookie, same filling; different consistency?

These cookies are a definite must try for the holidays. But on the other hand rolling out the dough can be tricky. You just have to remember to dust the surface with powdered sugar before rolling, and the rolling pin. I can remember being covered with powdered sugar, lol. Somehow that’s what made it fun when I was younger, handprints on our aprons, laughing the day away.

These are the cookies I’ve been baking for over fifty years.I learned that there are many different spellings including kolaczki, kolachky, kolachy, and kolacky. But however you spell it, the cookie starts with a cream cheese dough that is rolled out and filled with all kinds of fillings Now I mostly use apricot, pineapple and poppy.

The recipe is as follows;

Kolaczki Cookies

8oz cream cheese

8 oz margarine

2 1/4 cup flour

Pie filling (ex-prune, apricot, poppy, raspberry, pineapple) solo Is the brand most people use

(Numbers corresponds with picture heading.)

1.Cream together the cream cream cheese and the margarine til well blende d

2.Add flour a bit at a time until the dough is sticky. Then add additional flour by hand if needed so you can form a ball.

3.Wrap the ball and refrigerate for at least three to four hours

4.Take the dough and cut into fours, roll one out and refrigerate the rest. Use confectioners sugar to stop the dough from sticking to rolling pin and surface.

5.Once rectangle is achieved cut into squares (a pizza cutter works great for this). Then place the fruit in the center of each square fold into a bow, shape with fruit showing on each side pinch the dough in the center. Transfer to cookie sheet and get ready to bake in the oven.

6. Some people like to put an egg wash on each cookie for a browning effect, although I bake as is and dust with powdered sugar. Egg wash is just a cracked egg a bit of water and a pastry brush.

7. Bake in a pre heated oven at 350 Degrees for approx 20 minutes, cookies are done when slightly golden brown.

My brother and I spend the holiday sometime with friends; yet always together. However no matter where we are you can find these fruit filled cookies. They bring us home back in the kitchen we grew up in, memories of our childhood. Rolling the dough in the kitchen with mom, now gone: but the love and laughter lives on. Through the tradition of these special cookies made every year after year.

Mom loved to bake more than anything and made an awesome cheesecake. She never went to a party without it. I’ll never forget those days in the kitchen with mom sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee; waiting for the baked goods to emerge from the oven.

Dad had his own likings in the kitchen too, which I honed in on. He loved making soups of all kinds, stuffed cabbage and breakfast. I took to it like a fish to water and before long I was creating my own recipes as well. They showed me the love of cooking. I have the ability to throw dinner together with almost anything, and it still tastes great.

Of course baking is more of an exact science and you need to follow measurements. Try substituting in a recipe, expierment with flavors; enjoy the results. If you enjoy baking soon you’ll become a pro at substitutions. Try apple sauce for the fats in a cake recipe. Equal amounts, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Make cooking a family thing once a week. Get together with your spouse and cook, bake and love. I know with COVID-19 its been a tough year, some families all cooped up. But let’s go back to the traditions of the past, before we all got too busy. Let’s grow with our family, share in their love. Have a relaxing holiday and enjoy!