The holiday season is in full swing, and that means Christmas cookies! This time of year always brings me back to being a little kid, baking cookies with my mom. Every year we make a variety of different cookies but these are definitely one of my favorites. They might seem difficult to make at first glance, but they are actually quite easy, with few ingredients and very simple steps.
Kolacki are flaky and rich, pastry-like cookies filled with cream cheese or jam. They are traditional Polish cookies. Shapes, recipes and spelling of the cookie vary across regions of Europe.
I chose to do cherry jam and cream cheese filling for these, but you can use any jam or filling you would like!
Kolaczki
Scroll down for a printable version of this recipe
Yield: 30-35 cookies
Prep time: 40 minutes
Inactive time: 24 hours
Bake time: 12 minutes
For the cookies:
2 sticks of butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the fillings:
4 oz cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
Jam
1. Soften butter and cream cheese, this makes the dough come together much easier and ensures there are no lumps in the dough.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Mixing dry ingredients together will make sure everything incorporates evenly.
3. Cream together the softened butter and cream cheese until smooth.
4. Add flour mixture to butter and cream cheese, mix until just incorporated. Don't overmix.
5. Split dough in half, shape into rectangles and cover with plastic wrap. Shaping into flat rectangles makes rolling out dough so much easier.
6. Chill dough overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
8. Lightly flour your work surface and roll dough into a rectangle, 1/8-inch thick.
9. Cut into equal size squares.
10. Place filling in the middle of each square, bring up corners to the center and press to seal.
11. Place on a parchment lined sheet tray and bake for 12-14 minutes, until light golden brown.
12. Once they come out of the oven, transfer to a cooling rack. I like to let these cool completely before coating them with powdered sugar. Once cooled, sift powdered sugar over the top.
If you enjoy learning about baking and pastry, don't miss our baking class this Saturday which is suitable for the whole family: Hands-On Festive Family Baking Saturday, December 23 10am. You bake all of the delicious holiday treats in our kitchen with enough to bring home to share, and we handle the dishes and cleanup!
Kolaczki
Ingredients
- 2 sticks of butter
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Jam
Instructions
- Soften butter and cream cheese, this makes the dough come together much easier and ensures there are no lumps in the dough.
- Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Cream together the softened butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add flour mixture to butter and cream cheese, mix until just incorporated. Don't overmix.
- Split dough in half, shape into rectangles and cover with plastic wrap.
- Chill dough overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Lightly flour your work surface and roll dough into a rectangle, 1/8-inch thick.
- Cut into equal size squares.
- Place filling in the middle of each square, bring up corners to the center and press to seal.
- Place on a parchment lined sheet tray and bake for 12-14 minutes, until light golden brown.
- Once they come out of the oven, transfer to a cooling rack. Once cooled, sift powdered sugar over the top.
