Cherry Buns or Kolaches

[meemo]

When I was a kid walking 2 miles home from school every day, these were a frequent treat. Mama would have them sitting on the table still warm. It was something I never took the time to ask her how she made them. I've been trying to find a recipe that tastes like hers and never could. But then I was calling them cherry buns like we did. For some strange reason a while back when I was thinking about them it came to me that she called them kolaches. I googled it (gotta love the internet) and found this recipe. Finally, cherry buns like mama made.

Cherry buns or Kolaches
2 1/2 cup warm milk (scalded and then cooled to 110-115 degrees)
2 pkg dry yeast (2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter or shortning (I used butter)
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose or bread) I used bread flour
1 can of pie filling
Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar,shortning,salt, eggs, egg yolks and flour. Mix on low until well combined. Turn the dough into a well greased bowl. Turn it to grease the top. (I'm lazy...I spray the bowl and then spray the dough in the bowl) Cover, put in warm spot and let rise till doubled. 1 hr.
Grease a large baking pan. I wound up with a 9x13 and an 8"square. I dipped out the dough with a half cup measuring cup....roll the dough in your hand to make a ball. Put in the pan with space between the balls. Brush the tops with shortning and let rise until doubled. After they have risen flatten the balls a little....take your fingers and make an indention in the top. Fill the indention with pie filling or preserves. Allow it to rise. I was in a hurry so i skipped this rising. The pans had to set for 10 min waiting for the oven to come to temp.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
Glaze them with a confect. sugar/cream or milk glaze.



I made some last night.

[Valerie]

OMG, those look so wonderful! Gotta make these soon!

[meemo]

Valerie, you wont believe how easy they are. Time consuming because of having to rise but well worth it. No kneading, rolling out or guessing how much flour. Just yummy. I'm goin to make some more and make stuff like they put in a cheese danish. We'll see how that turns out.

[catinhat]

I have cherry filling I canned from our tree - can't wait to try these for Easter!

[Valerie]

These would def be worth a walk to the store tomorrow for pie filing. I think I would bake half and freeze half, though. We sure don't need all those buns at once!

[catinhat]

I was already thinking the same thing, Valerie, except I think I'll just freeze half the filling and make a half recipe...so I can make a test batch soon, and then make them again at Easter.

[upnorthlady2]

This looks like a nice easy recipe! I love kolaches. They are good with prune filling, too. I will definitely have to try this one.

[meemo]

Oh, yummy. Patti I forgot about the prune filling. I've had them from a bakery. I will def. have to make some like that.
These were too tall. I'm going to make more of them and flatten them more. They were awesomely good but I think they would be better thinner. If I do that the recipe will make 2, 9x13 pans. Since I share with my daughter that wont be too many but if I'm just making them for us I'll half it too.

[mysisteringa]

These look so good! Can't wait to try them. Love your idea of using cheese filling since cheese danish are my favorite! Thanks.

[eyeofthestorm]

I made these today...sort of.

These just look sooooo good, but I just can't each anything carb-y like that anymore without backlash, so I did this:

Instead of the 6-1/2 c flour, I used 4-1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (hard wheat, because that's what I had) and 2 cups of pinto bean flour (I just put the beans through the mill, like the wheat berries).

I needed to bake them for about 35 minutes, but that could be my oven.

So far, they look right - like whole wheat versions of Peggy's picture. We'll have them after dinner tonight, so I'll let you know how they taste.

[meemo]

I really want to know how they taste. That would be a way to make them out of my food storage.

[Sheila]

Made these yesterday used apricot filling was so yummy.

[eyeofthestorm]

Peggy, they were good. They were a little "spice cake-y," but I often think that when I put in pintos for part of the flour. Also, I had an edge one, and the outside was really wheat-y (it was drier than the inside parts). Otherwise, they were fine, Nice and tender.

I'm going to make them after this with apricot or prune filling. The peach slices in my pie filling are too big. We like big peach slices in our pie, but I had a dickens of a time convincing the peaches to stay in the indentations.
Here they are, I mean, were:

[Valerie]

We're having a bunch of folks over on Easter, so I'm going to make these then.

[Valerie]

Made these yesterday. OMG! They are awesome. Matter of fact, I think I'll have one in a minute with another cup of tea!

Hey, Peggy, could you move this thread to Desserts or yeast breads or somewhere like that, so it doesn't get lost?