Bake fruit kolache according to František Skopec
Fruit pies are a Czech classic that has, perhaps a little surprisingly, taken over modern Czech bistros. A sympathetic trend commands not to skimp on butter, indulge in rum and avoid white flour and sugaras we've been advised to do by the various dietary guides. The return to Grandma's honest desserts was in full swing during the pandemic - and it has not gone away. Why don't we want to let go of this fashionable sweet wave?
What's behind the success of a great cake?
What makes a fruitcake the right fruitcake? Is it a well-crafted yeasted dough, a nice crunchy crumb, a well-judged layer of fruit or the ideal baking time? It is certainly important to master all of the above and a combination of them.
Whether a cake disappears from the table with lightning speed is also influenced by a certain baking experience - grandmothers have baking so much in hand and eye that the cake comes out great even if they make the dough by eye. It's not enough to simply copy a recipe from the family recipe book and get going! However, one of the factors that greatly influences the quality of a pie is often forgotten. This is the quality of the basic ingredient - flour.
A trending topic? Flour!
Homemade cakes are trendy, but slowly it's time to take this trend a little further. Society is concerned with where the best cakes are baked, or even bread, but few are looking for an answer to the question: why?
Flour at first bake may not sound like a sexy enough topic, but it definitely should be. After all, it is the building block of flavour in baked desserts! Grain is not a food that is enthusiastically talked about in terms of the soil it grew on or the slope from which the farmer harvested it. Interestingly, with fermented grapes, we are used to such information - and even happy to pay extra for it.
Most of us are delighted when we see the name of a winemaker on a wine list and remember a vineyard we personally visited during our holiday. So why is it that so few people care about the origins of a crop that feeds the entire planet and occupies such a large area of land?
I honestly hadn't even thought before about how crisp and fluffy the pastries I can bake are if I reach for the better flour on the shelf. Most of the excitement around the subject of grain has only registered in a negative sense - in discussions about the bogeyman of gluten and the health problems associated with its consumption.
However, the more often I get my apron in a twist, the more surprised I am, how important it is to know the quality of flour and how much sense it makes to pay extra for this absolutely essential food. Just as it is the need to know whether to use plain, semi-coarse or coarse flour for a cake, it is good to remember that the origin and quality of the flour will directly affect the taste of the pastry. Unlike in previous generations, we have the choice and the room for experimentation.
Try baking a cake with conventional flour, which is made by mixing grains from all over the world, and with flour from a small farmer who may have a field near your house. You'll see that good flour elevates an "ordinary" fruit cake into an extraordinary experience. It's time for a flour revolution! Be part of it with me and the professional bakers.
Leavened blueberry kolache with crumble
Ingredients:
For the pie:
- ½ vanilla pod
- 200 ml milk
- 500 g semi-coarse flour
- 10 g fresh yeast
- 60 g caster sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 pinch of salt
- 120 g softened butter
- 1,5 l blueberries
For the crumble:
- 100 g butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 200 g semi-coarse flour
- ½ pinch of salt
- seeds from ½ vanilla pod
To finish:
- 150 g butter
- 50 g of rum
- icing sugar
Procedure:
- Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and carefully scrape out the seeds with the blade of a knife. Save them for the crumble you will prepare later. Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the empty vanilla pod. Heat together to about 38 °C, then set aside.
- Weigh 50 g of flour into a small bowl, crumble in the yeast, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 4 tablespoons of warmed, lukewarm milk. Stir gently and allow the yeast to rise, it takes 10-15 minutes and a rich foam will begin to form on the surface.
- Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Remove the vanilla pod from the lukewarm milk and stir the milk into the beaten egg yolks.
- Add the remaining flour and salt to the bowl and mix. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture to form a compact mass, then incorporate the risen sourdough. Finally, stir in the softened butter - add it gradually, in thirds, each time after the previous part of the butter has been thoroughly incorporated. Knead the dough for 10 minutes to make it smooth and non-sticky. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, depending on the room temperature, this will take about 60-90 minutes.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper. Transfer the risen dough from the bowl to a work surface or wooden rolling pin and roll it out into a sheet the size of the baking tray. Carefully transfer the rolled dough to the prepared baking sheet and press out the raised edges.
- Spread the washed, drained blueberries evenly over the dough, leaving the raised edges loose. Let the pie rise for 10-20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 °C. Also prepare the crumble - in a bowl, beat the butter with the sugar, flour and salt. Don't forget to add the seeds from the vanilla pod!
- Sprinkle the crumble generously over the cake and place it in the preheated oven. After 15 minutes of baking, lower the oven temperature to 160 °C and bake the cake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Brush the baked, still warm cake with melted butter mixed with rum. Leave to cool completely. Before serving, dust the cake with icing sugar.
Tip: Before baking, brush the raised edges of the pastry with egg yolk whipped with cream in a ratio of 1 : 1. The edges of the pie will be beautifully shiny after baking!
Tips that will make the dough turn out smooth
Is the dough not rising as planned? Stressed about preparing it? Don't despair - there are a few principles to follow that will lead to the perfect fruit pie.
- Choose the right flour. Smooth or semi-coarse flour with a higher gluten content is best for sweet yeasted pastries, as it helps the dough rise, gives it elasticity and holds its shape even after baking. The cake should be fluffy - semi-coarse flour, in which the grains are relatively coarsely ground, will also make it more tender.
- How to start? By preparing the yeast sourdough! It acts as an indicator that the yeast is active.
- A smaller amount of yeast can then be used to rise the dough thanks to the initial starter.
- Room temperature, the basis for success. Take the milk, yeast, eggs and butter out of the fridge 1 hour before kneading the dough, so that it has time to come to room temperature. The dough will knead better and will not shrink.
- Don't overdo it with the sugar! If the dough gets too sweet, it won't rise.
- Watch out for the salt! Salt should not be absent in yeast dough, it makes the dough more elastic and enhances the flavour. However, when kneading, make sure that it does not come into direct contact with the yeast - this risks the dough not rising. It is therefore better to stir a pinch of salt into the flour beforehand.
- Do not incorporate the butter until the end - if it is mixed in at the beginning, the flour particles will become coated with the butter emulsion, making it difficult for the gluten and gluten lattices, which are responsible for the elasticity of the dough, to develop.
- Cold and draughts are not conducive to rising. Let the dough rise on the kitchen counter at room temperature or near the heater. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel or, better still, with cling film or a plastic bag - they do not absorb moisture and do not let in air, creating a 'sauna' which makes the dough rise well.
- Does the dough need to double in volume? It doesn't have to! But it should increase by at least 70%. The rise must be noticeable, otherwise the pastry will crack in the oven due to the heat.
- It must not over-rise! Keep an eye on the dough in the bowl - over-rising will cause the final pastry to be flat. You can tell when the dough has over-risen by the fact that it has lost its elasticity, no longer rises, but instead shrinks and falls back. If you poke it with your finger, it starts to wrinkle, the dent remains dented and it does not try to flatten out.
- You want to fill the cakes with fruit but only have frozen fruit? That's okay. Defrost it and let it go cold. Thanks to this, too much juice will not leak out of the fruit during baking, the dough will not shrink due to excessive moisture, and if you put the fruit on the curd filling, it will not be quite discoloured from the leaking juice.
- Leave the pastry to cool at room temperature. If you place it in a cool place while it is still warm, it may shrink.
