Kolache

Texas is an expansive land of high speed limits, fine pit stop barbecue, authentic Tex-Mex fare, and bakeries offering sweets of both the deep-fried and delicately laminated variety. In other words, Texas is a gourmand road tripper’s paradise. Nothing, however, delights and surprises travelers more than a certain round pastry, dented and filled, that is offered in chains, hometown bakeries, and even the odd gas station. This scrumptious yeasted treat is the kolache (pronounced koh-LAH-chee), a Lone Star State treasure that enchants all who come across it but hasn’t hit the mainstream circuit. How and when did the best-kept secret in pastry come to Texas?

The kolache is a circular, fluffy, filled pastry brought over by Central European immigrants, particularly Czechs from the Old-World regions of Bohemia and Moravia, around the mid-1800s. The term kolache comes from the Slavic word kolo, meaning “wheel.” Central and Eastern Europe have a number of championed round sweet breads and cakes with similar spellings—like the Polish , a disk-shaped wedding cake filled with cheese curd, or the Ukrainian , a braided bread formed into a circle and served on Christmas. But what makes the Czech kolache so special is its iconic divot and the filling of choice: , a rich plum butter made from cooking down Italian plums (also called prune plums). The sweet dent first began to appear in kolaches in the 1800s, not long before a great migration of the Czech people to a new land of promise.