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Gluten Free Kolacke

3 sticks or 12 ounces Butter, softened

8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

1/8 teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/3 Cup Ultra Gel or 1 teaspoon xanthan gum

3 Tablespoons Arrow Root

3+ Cups Gluten Free Flour Blend WITHOUT added xanthan gum

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract, stir to combine.

In another bowl combine the gluten free flour, salt, sugar, Ultra Gel or xanthan gum, arrow root and the baking powder. Whisk to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well to combine. Divide the dough in half, form into flat discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper. If the dough gets very sticky dust it lightly with a little bit of gluten free flour.

Cut into squares, fill each square with 1 teaspoon of desired filling, bring 2 opposite corners to the center and pinch to close. I like to use Solo brand filling in my kolackes. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet 2 inches apart and bake at 350*F for 20-22 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Remove the pan from oven and allow the kolackes to cool for 5 minutes on the pan. After the 5 minutes remove the sheet of parchment paper with the kolackes to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Store tightly covered and dust with confectioners sugar right before serving.

*******Edited to adjust baking time, allowing for a bit longer bake and cooling on the sheet pan for 5 minutes will yield a golden brown bottom.

Keep up the great work. Someday you are going to have enough adapted recipes for your own cook book.

Thanks FF, I really want my Polish holiday goodies and this is the only way to get them gf.

This is a new simplified method of making the gluten free kolacke using the recipe above. Using the new method increased the quantity of the finished kolacke to 84 from the same recipe

I got the kolacke dough made then instead of making discs out of it before chilling it, I just chilled it for about a half hour right in the mixing bowl.

I wanted to try something different instead of rolling out the dough because it’s difficult to work with when it gets warm. I used my small cookie scoop and portioned the dough out into little drops then placed them onto parchment paper lined sheet pans. Then I put the sheet pans back into the refrigerator for about 5-10 minutes to firm up a bit more before the next step.

I decided to use my tortilla press to flatten each ball instead of rolling out the dough and cutting it into circles with a cookie cutter.

This method worked perfectly! I used a piece of wax paper folded in half to line the tortilla press, then I placed the dough ball in the middle of the folded wax paper and flattened it with the tortilla press.

I peeled the disc of dough off the wax paper, put a teaspoon full of the Solo pastry and pie filling in the center of the disc, folded the two sides into the center, overlapping slightly and set them on a parchment lined sheet pan spacing them about an inch apart for baking.

I prepared all the dough before beginning to bake any of the kolacke so the heat from the oven wouldn’t make the dough too difficult to remove from the wax paper after pressing it with the tortilla press.

I baked 2 pans at a time, rotating the pans after 9 minutes for a total of 18 minutes per batch. I removed the sheet pans from the oven, set them on wire racks and left the kolacke on the pans to cool. They will develop a nice golden bottom if cooled on the sheet pan.

What is your favorite filling to add to these? I am still planning on making some, when I get the energy to do something other than just sit.

I absolutely love apricot and cherry but won’t turn down raspberry, strawberry, custard or even prune. I’m not fond of the poppy seed filled ones.

On the custard sounds yummy! Do you just use a standard egg custard to fill them?

I’ve never actually made the custard flavor ones at home but I’ve had them from the bakery before going gluten free. I’ll pull my Polish cookbook out later and see if there is a recipe in there for it.

I have a good egg custard recipe. If I can remember I will post it later as well. I was thinking strawberry jam until you said custard. You know that cream cheese filling you get in danish? I bet that would work too. SOOOO long since I had a cream cheese danish.

Now you have me hungry.

I need to get to dump day before I sit and stuff my face. Geek and I are going to Denny's after we get the load off the truck.

If you use regular jam it has a tendency to melt and leak out of the kolacke as they bake. You need a thick jam that’s why I spend the $$ on the Solo filling. I’m going to try making my own thick filling from my cherries and raspberries in a couple weeks. I’ll add extra Ultra Gel to the jam that I make so that it stays in place and doesn’t melt when it’s baked.

You can always not fill them as full or try making your homemade jam a bit thicker to stay put inside the kolacke.

The Ultra Gel works in either hot or cold applications so it should hold my homemade jam together better.