Kolache

The kolache (*ko-LAH-chee*) — a soft, yeasted, pillowy pastry filled with fruit (traditionally poppy seed, prune, apricot, or cheese) — arrived in Texas with the Czech (*Bohemian*) immigrants who settled the central Texas towns of West, Caldwell, Shiner, and Flatonia in the mid-to-late 19th century. The kolache is to Czech-Texan identity what the beignet is to New Orleans: a specific pastry that carries a specific cultural memory. West, Texas (a small town, not the direction) is the kolache capital — the Czech Stop, a gas station and bakery on I-35, is the most famous kolache source and a mandatory stop on the drive between Austin and Dallas. The meat kolache — sausage or ham-and-cheese wrapped in the same yeasted dough — is a Texas adaptation (called a *klobasnek* properly, though Texans call it a kolache) that has no equivalent in Czech tradition.

A soft, slightly sweet, yeasted dough formed into a round, with a thumb-pressed well in the centre filled with fruit filling (prune, apricot, poppy seed, cream cheese, or cherry) and baked until golden. The dough should be cloud-soft, enriched with butter and eggs, with a faint sweetness that doesn't compete with the filling. The fruit filling should be thick enough to stay in the well, sweet, and slightly tart. The meat version: the same dough wrapped around a sausage link (Czech-style smoked sausage, see AM3-06) or a combination of ham and cheese, formed into a sealed roll, and baked.

Kolache are breakfast or snack food — with coffee, on the road, at a tailgate. Fruit kolache are sweet; meat klobasnek are savoury. Both serve the same purpose: a soft, portable, one-hand food.