Polish. I’ve never been to Poland, and I don’t think I’ve had anything Polish other than pierogies, which to me are dumplings. I decided that I wanted to do something sweet or dessert-ish, since I’ve been on quite a sweet roll with my Chinese New Year cookies. It’s also a week late because I had wanted to visit a Polish restaurant to see what Polish food was like before cooking it, but unfortunately haven’t made it there yet.

So here you go – kolaches! Kolaches is a pastry that has a dollop of either fruit jam or some other filling (could be cabbage; the Polish dishes have a bunch of cabbage in them.) It looks delicious and reminds me of danishes (which is not from Denmark by the way.) So here it is, blueberry kolaches, because I have bluebery jam and it is delicious!

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast)

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 stick butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 cup blueberry jam

Directions

In a small bowl, add the water, yeast and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Mix and let stand until frothy.

In another bowl, cream the sugar and butter. When the butter is light, add the rest of the dry ingredients, egg and milk, and mix until it resembles a dough.

Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes, then cover and let stand until it doubles in size (about 40 minutes.)

When the dough has doubled, place it on a floured surface, then roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 4 by 4 inch squares.

Roll out squares, and spread about 1.5 teaspoons in the middle of the dough. Pinch opposite ends together (as above.)

Place the formed kolaches in a lined cookie sheet and bake at 400F for 15 to 20 minutes.

When they are baked and golden, serve and enjoy!