Sausage Kolaches Recipes

Steps:

• Over medium heat, warm the milk and 4 tablespoons of the butter until the milk is just beginning to steam, but is not boiling, and the butter is melted. Remove from the heat.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yeast, sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Pour in the warm milk mixture and stir until a sticky dough has formed. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, beat together the oil and egg yolks. Pour the eggs into the flour mixture and blend until fully incorporated. Slowly stir in enough of the remaining 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour until the dough comes together and is soft but not sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, or until it is smooth.
• Place the kneaded dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. After the dough has risen, punch it down and divide into 8 even-size pieces. In your hands, roll the pieces of dough into balls and then flatten them into disks 4 inches in diameter. In the center of each piece of dough, place 1/2 tablespoon of the cheddar cheese, 2 slices of jalapeño, and a piece of sausage. Fold one side of the dough over the other and roll, then seal by pinching on all sides. Place on the baking sheet 1 inch apart, seam side down. Cover and allow to rise for 45 more minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F.
• Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Brush the tops of the klobasneks with half the melted butter. Bake, uncovered, for 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. After you remove them from the oven, brush each klobasnek with the remaining melted butter. Serve warm. They are best on the day they are made, but they can be tightly wrapped and then reheated, up to 2 days after baking. They can also be frozen.

Steps:

• For the sausage and gravy filling: Put the Breakfast Sausage into a pan on the stove. Pour the oil into the pan and onto the sausage. Break into bite-sized pieces and turn on the heat. Season and distribute evenly with 1 tablespoon black pepper and 2 tablespoons salt. Mix together and cook the meat until done, about 10 minutes.
• Once the sausage is fully cooked, turn the heat to low and distribute the flour evenly onto the sausage. Make sure the oil and the flour combine to form a thick roux. Once each sausage piece is thoroughly covered with flour, turn the heat back onto high. Add the milk to the pan and stir to break up any sausage clumps. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon pepper and 2 tablespoons salt to the milk. Bring to a simmer and cook, mixing periodically so that the flour does not cook on the bottom of the pan. Once the milk starts to boil, continually stir the mixture as it thickens, ensuring it doesn't burn. Once the sausage starts to "pull" from the sides of the pan, the gravy is cooked completely. Pour into a dish and refrigerate overnight so it gets gelatinous.
• For the dough: In a sauce pan, melt the butter. When melted, whisk in the milk, then pour into a mixer bowl. Add the yeast, flour, sugar, egg yolks and salt to the bowl and mix on low until the mixture is fully incorporated. Turn the mixer up slightly and knead until the dough is smooth. Portion the dough into 3-ounce balls immediately and set aside to proof until the dough is soft and supple, about 30 minutes.
• Building the sausage and gravy kolache: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• When the dough is soft and plump, place a ball into one hand and flatten. Use a spoon to scoop the sausage and gravy filling into the center of the flattened dough in your palm. Pull the outside portion of the dough up and around the filling, pinching the dough closed at the top. Invert the ball with the seam on the bottom and place on a baking sheet. Continue with the remaining dough balls and filling.
• Bake the kolaches until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.
• In a large bowl, add the pork, beef, salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, sage and 1 tablespoon cold water and mix thoroughly.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine the yeast with the water.
• Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and 1/4 cup sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
• Mix in the egg yolks, milk, and salt, combining well.
• Stir in the dissolved yeast and the flour, and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly blended into a soft dough.
• Cover the dough with a towel, and set the dough aside to rise to about double in size, approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Grease a baking sheet.
• Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball, flatten the balls slightly, and transfer them to the baking sheet.
• Place the balls at least 1 inch apart, and brush them liberally with the melted butter.
• Set them aside to double in size again, about 45 minutes to one hour.
• Gently indent the top of the dough with your thumb, fairly deep.
• Place the little pinky size smoked sausage link (could be a spicy sausage link, or could add cheese and/or jalapeno with the sausage link, too) in the indent and fold the kolache over the sausage and seal.
• Bake in 425 oven for 10- 12 minutes or until golden brown.
• Immediately brush butter on the top.
• They are best eaten as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Steps:

• Beat together warm water, sugar, yeast, 1 cup warm milk and 1 3/4 cups flour thoroughly and let stand for 1 hour.
• (I usually make the sponge in a large metal bowl, and let it sit in a barely warm oven for the hour. I preheat my oven to 170, then open the door of it to let some of the heat escape for about 3 to 5 minutes. BE SURE TO TURN YOUR OVEN OFF! I cover the bowl with a clean flour sack towel and pop it in.).
• Add Crisco, 1/4 cup warm milk, salt, egg yolks and 2 1/4 cups flour. Beat well and let rise until double in bulk.
• ( when I put the sponge in the barely warmed oven, I microwave the Crisco. It's really hot, so I let it stand out while the sponge is perculating. If you put the Crisco in when it is too hot, it will kill the yeast. The results are not pretty, lol. I usually use butter flavored Crisco.).
• Then work down (stir it with a wooden spoon. It releases all the "air" trapped in it. The dough will be very soft, and a little sticky.).
• Make the parts for each sausage roll. Cover the sausage and cheese with the dough you have patted out.( I use a silpat, and pat each golf ball size blob down to a rectange about 3 inches by 5 inches and about 1/4 of an inch thick.) Make sure to seal the cheese and sausage up well, and place the seam side down on the sheet pan.
• (It's hard to put an exact measurement on this because some like to use the big sausages, and others the little smokies. I usually use about a golf ball size for the sausages that are about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch in diameter. Any more, and I have way too much breading around the sausage. This dough really grows after the 2nd rise.).
• Beat the egg and water together to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the tops of the kolaches. (This makes them a beautiful golden brown. I usually reserve the 2 egg whites that I separate from the yolks for the dough and it has worked like a charm for me.).
• Let rise 15 minutes. (I've found that 15 minutes is plenty, because the kolaches continue to puff up in the oven. I've left them overnight, and it caused the bread to be too spongy, and they went stale very quickly.).
• Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
• Some additional notes: I've made these in a bread machine on the dough setting and just dumped everything in for the sponge and the dough. It's a lot less work, but after it is baked, the bread does not have the fine texture the it does when you do all of the steps as listed.
• Also, underestimate the amount of dough you need to wrap around your filling. If the yeast that you have used is fresh, a little dough goes a long way!
• Some fillings that I have tried are apple butter, bacon, egg and cheese, ham and cheese, strawberry jam with cream cheese. Anytime I use jam, I freeze the jam in one of those ice trays that make long tubes of ice for water bottles, and I brush the dough with a little melted butter before I put the "jam cube" on it to prevent sogginess. These are a hit with my children.