Kołaczyki – Little Wheels

Sweet Yeast Buns

Kołaczyki means little wheels from the word koła which means wheels.

In a previous post –  Bułeczki – Sweet Yeast Buns– I gave a recipe for basic sweet yeast dough – since then I have tried out a slightly different recipe – nearly the same ingredients but a slightly different method – and I think these turned out to be the best yeast buns I have ever made – so this is  – Basic sweet yeast dough version two. 

A few reminders when using yeast in baking

• Learn to be patient – you cannot control the timings exactly with yeast, it depends on the temperature of the room and the flour used and other variables.
• Do yeast baking on a day you are planning to be in & have other things to do, but ones you can break off from when needed.
• Heat the milk so it is at body temperature – use the finger test – too hot and you will kill the yeast – too cold is okay – it will just take longer.
• An egg glaze often burns too quickly –  I have found an egg white or egg white & water glaze gives a better result.

Older Polish recipes use fresh yeast. I have used dried yeast and have had very good results.  (I have not tried using easy bake yeast for this recipe).

Basic Sweet Yeast Dough Version 2

Ingredients

Leaven – Starter

• 100g plain flour
• 30g fresh yeast or 15-20g dried yeast
• 125ml  milk

Rest of ingredients

• 3 egg yolks
• 60g sugar
• 50g melted butter or block margarine
• 400g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2-3 drops of vanilla essence
• 125ml milk

and

Save 1 egg white for use as a wash on the buns.

Method

• Warm the milk slightly – so it is just warm to the touch – and add the yeast and mix together.
• Put the flour in to a bowl and add the milk and yeast  mix it all together and leave it covered until it is double in size.
• Melt the butter and leave it to cool.
• Whisk the yolks and sugar until they are pale and fluffy.
• Grease 2 baking sheets – You should get around 15 buns. – invite people round!
• Into a large bowl put: the flour and the salt, the yeast starter, the yolk mixture, the zest of a lemon, the vanilla essence and the milk.
• Mix it all together so that you get a soft dough that comes away from the side of the bowl – you do not have to knead it.
• Then work in the melted butter (this is the hardest part) until it is all incorporated and you have a uniform shiny dough.
• Cover the dough with a cloth and leave this to rise until it is double in size.

• Onto a floured surface place the dough and form it into a rectangle and then roll this out until it is around  2cm thick.
• Using a 8cm diameter cutter cut out circles of dough and place them on the greased baking sheets, leaving room for the dough to rise.
• Gather together the left over dough and repeat the process.

• Cover the trays and leave the circles to rise and double in size.
• Pre heat the oven to GM5 – 190ºC
• Use a clean napkin or tea towel and cover the base of a tumbler.
• Use the covered tumbler and press down on the centre of each circle to form an indentation into which you will put a filling.

Fillings

• These are the ones I tried –
• Cheese mixture – similar to ones for baked cheesecake.
• Mix together around 250g of cream cheese/twaróg/curd or yoghurt cheese, 70g icing sugar, 1 egg yolk and 2-3 drops of vanilla essence.
• Blackcurrant jam (you could use any tart jam such as cherry or gooseberry )
• English style sweet mincemeat – I use Delia Smith’s recipe (without the nuts)
• Put a large dollop of the filling onto each circle.

Brush the exposed dough with beaten egg white.

Topping

This is for the jam or mincemeat only – not the cheese mixture.

Kruszonka – Crumble Mixture

Ingredients

• 50g plain flour
• 50g butter
• 50g granulated  sugar

Method

• Mix together the flour and butter to make fine crumbs then mix in the sugar.
• Sprinkle around a tablespoon or so over the jam or mincemeat.

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• Bake the buns for around 15 minutes.

Tea plate pattern below is called Mayfair.

They were all delicious – the sweet cheese ones were my favourites!