Strawberry Kolacki

My mister’s mama is Polish. She made these Kolacki things at Christmas. They were so good they were annoying. I ate like 30 of them. Seriously.

I stalked her for the recipe. We had a little Polish moment (as she called it) when I followed her recipe only to find out she left out one major ingredient (butter) but in the end- success! Awesome.

First thing is first- I had to have a moment of silence for these sweet Florida beauties before I turned them into the filling.

Strawberries hardly ever make it into a recipe in my house. My little Fiona and I consume them with gusto before they even stand a chance. However, Valentine’s day and Fat Thursday (A Polish thing) happening on the same day? The strawberries had to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of my taste buds.

Dough: 1lb butter, 8oz sour cream, 3 egg yolks, 2 cake yeast (also called fresh yeast) activated (let it sit for 5 minutes)  in 1/4 cup warm water with a tablespoon of sugar, 6 cups of flour.

Cream butter, sour cream, egg yolks together add activated yeast. Stir in 4-5 cups of the flour then knead in the rest.

Put in gallon freezer bag with air pushed out of it. Set in fridge overnight. The next morning it will have filled with air.

Roll paper thin, cut in 2 inch square and dabble some filling. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Filling- you can use pie filling, but ya- it has weird stuff like high fructose whatever whatever and food coloring. My hair is natural red and my strawberry filling should be too. I digress.

Filling: you can use strawberries, pineapple (that was good) or even dried apricots (reconstituted with water). Cut up your fruit cook it down with a bit of sugar and  tapioca starch (you can also use corn starch) until thickened. Run it through the blender to make it smooth. Set it in the fridge overnight to continue thickening.

Oh, they were delish!!!! As my mister’s mama said to me, “Try them and be Polish.”