Dutch Apple Kolaches have a soft and tender dough that is perfect for holding your favorite filling. They taste like you bought them at a bakery but are easy enough to make at home.
THIS POST HAS BEEN UPGRADED FROM 10/27/14 TO IMPROVE READER EXPERIENCE.
Apple Kolaches have a warm sweet apple filling nestled in a soft kolache dough. They’re delicious for breakfast with a cup of coffee. This easy Kolache recipe makes 28 rolls so they’re perfect for company.
I LOVE baked goods. You name it, sweet rolls, donuts, pastries or in this case, a Dutch Apple Kolache made in my own kitchen.
What are Kolaches?
I didn’t really know too much about Kolaches when I first started making them, except for the fact that they were delicious and I thought that they were a Bohemian or Czech creation.
They’re defined as “a type of pastry that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough”. They also stated that they originated in “Central Europe”.
Ya right, they said that so they didn’t start any Kolache wars. There are several articles from different heritages claiming that they were the originators of this pastry. Nebraska, Minnesota and Texas also claim to be the “Kolache Capital of the World”.
I am a mixed breed with no claim to Kolaches’ origination. I’m just the baker and even combined heritages to come up with this Kolache recipe version (gasp). So, I guess this Kolache does come from my heritage (pompous opinion only).
How to Make Kolache dough
Freshly mixed yeast, liquid, and sugar. 
Smoothly kneaded Kolache dough 
Kolache dough after rising.
- Activate yeast with liquid and sugar. Activating your yeast isn’t necessary if using Instant, Quick or Rapid rise yeast. You can mix all ingredients together if that’s the case.
- Add all dough ingredients together and knead the dough until it is smooth, approximate 7 to 8 minutes.
- Let dough rise until doubled, approximately 60 to 90 minutes.
There’s a video in the recipe card to show you how easy these Apple Kolaches are to make!
What are Kolache Recipes filled with?
As I said, I knew they were yummy and that the dough isn’t overly sweet so this same kolache dough recipe can be used with a sweet or savory filling.
This easy Kolache recipe is often filled with pie filling or jam, purchased or homemade is fine. Traditionally the fillings are apricot, cherry, prune, or poppyseed, but could also be meat such as sausage, or a soft farmers cheese. In the bakeries here, I see a lot of kolaches with a combination of fruit and cheese.
I made this warm cinnamon and brown sugar apple filling. It’s delicious on it’s own and amazing in this Kolache recipe!
Back to the Kolache itself. The first time I made this recipe was to use up some pears sitting on my counter and came up with an amazing Caramelized Pear filling that tasted amazing nestled in this soft kolache dough too.
I love apples and especially baked apples in a warm cinnamon-brown sugar mix. This Apple Kolache recipe certainly ranks up there with my all-time favorite bakery recipes.
I love baked goods! Here are a few more of my favorites!
- Apple Pecan Streusel Pull-Apart Bread
- Overnight Brioche Cinnamon Rolls
- Apple Dumplings with Spiced Rum Caramel Sauce
- Air Fryer Cherry Pie
- Apple Dutch Baby Pancake Recipe
- Toasted Coconut Pear Muffins
Kitchen Gadgets You may need:
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- Baking Sheets – These sheet pans are durable and I have four of them so I can get all of my cookies baked in a jiffy!
- Food Scale – This scale is what I use to get rolls and buns the same size. I also use it for measuring ingredients in many of my bread recipes.
- Glass Mixing Bowls – This set allows me to prep all of my ingredients and they’re dishwasher safe.
Tips:
- Kolaches can be frozen after baking and cooled in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.
- The dough doesn’t need to be weighed. You can just estimate their size. The most important thing is that they’re all approximately the same size so they bake at the same rate.
- When forming your dough don’t press through the bottom of the roll. Your filling will leak out.
- Dice your fruit small enough so you can get a lot of it in each Kolache. It may bake down and that’s perfectly fine.
Dutch Apple Kolaches Recipe – Made At Home
Ingredients
Dough
- ½ oz Yeast or 2-packages
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 cups whole milk warmed to 110 – 115 degrees F
- 5 cups all-purpose flour may need an up to an additional cup
- 4 egg yolks room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
*Apple Filling (optional)
- 4 apples Granny Smith or Braeburn (about 4 cups diced)
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp water
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp corn starch
Streusel (optional)
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
Additional Ingredients: melted butter or egg wash
Instructions
Dough
- In a small bowl, dissolve yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and warm milk. *Let rest for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add butter, egg yolks and yeast/milk mixture. Add enough remaining flour until no longer too sticky to handle.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 7 to 8 minutes. Place dough into a greased bowl, turning once to coat both sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes.
- Butter (or grease) 3 baking sheets. Cover a kitchen scale with plastic wrap. Punch dough down and tear off 1 1/2 ounce pieces of dough. Shape into smooth round balls with seams on the bottom. Place 12 on each greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter and allow to double, approximately 60 minutes.
- Using your thumbs, make a depression in each roll large enough to hold 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling. Don't press through the bottom of the roll. Brush with melted butter again or use an egg wash with the left over egg whites. Fill with desired filling. Sprinkle with streusel if desired.
- Bake at 350° F for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn and rotate pans halfway through baking.
Dutch Apple Filling
- In a 2 quart saucepan combine diced apples, water and the juice of one lemon. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally for 8 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool while dough rises. NOTE: Add an additional tbsp of corn starch if filling doesn't thicken. Water content can be very different according to variety.
Streusel (optional)
- Whisk the flour, sugar and cinnamon together. Drizzle with the melted butter and fluff together with a fork.
Video
Notes
- Instant or Quick Rise yeasts don’t have to bloom and can be added directly to the recipe.
- Recipe adapted from Taste of Home
Nutrition
Leave me a comment below and tell me what your favorite bakery item is. It may show up right here! If you liked this recipe leave me a 5-star review while you’re at it.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for spending some time with me today!
I cannot wait to make this these fall! Thank you for a magnificent recipe! I just hope mine turn out as beautifully as these do!
Thank you, Nikki! I’m sure you’ll hit it out of the park!
These kolaches are beautiful! I ate a lot of pastries when we were in Europe, but I don’t think I had kolaches. So excited to give these a try!
Thank you so much, Sandra!
I had never heard of Kolaches before, but, its definitely something I would like to try now, The apples look delicious and easy to make
Thank you! I know your kolaches will be an instant success!
Anything with a Streusel topping is tops in my book. These are perfect for fall when I want apples! Thanks so much!
Thanks, Debi! I’m a streusel love too!
These are the most beautiful kolaches I have ever laid eyes on!! You give such wonderful instructions, I know I can mater this!! tIme to get out of my comfort zone and make these this week!!
Thank you so much, Michaela! I hope you’ll let me know if you have any questions.
My goodness these are delicious. It was the perfect breakfast with coffee this morning. Thank you for another amazing recipe!!
Thank you, Deb!
Im always intimidated by yeast baking… but THANK you for the step by step photos. It made it super clear to know exactly how my dough should look! They turned out beautifully! We devoured them..
Thank you! We love easy yeast rolls like this one!
Wonderful recipe. Dough is easy to work with and they come out delicious. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Elizabeth for letting me know that you made them and that they were a success for you!
Hi, found this recipe a bit late it seems. I the recipe, it calls for whole milk. Is that the 3.5%mf homogenized (spelled it wrong 🙁 ) milk or another kind?
Hi Dody, thank you for visiting Hostess At Heart! You can use any milk marked as whole milk. I just wouldn’t use a reduced fat milk such as skim milk. Does that help? Enjoy your day.
Kolace in Croatian means pastries, in general. All of them. The word brings me memories of my mom in the kitchen, kneading the dough, and baking delicious pastries for us. Thank you for the recipe and for the memories.
Olga, I am so happy to hear that you have a history with these pastries. Isn’t that what food is about? Creating memories with those that we share? Thank you so much for visiting!
Pinning this for later because it looks AMAZING! Thanks for sharing!
They were fun to put together. Thank you for commenting!
I never heard of kolaches. .. They look divine…can’t wait to give it a try. ..
I am Czech and my mother made these from scratch all the time when I was growing up! Hers were the best!! I have wonderful memories of all of her delicious baked goods. Unfortunately I never got her recipe for these … Ah if only I had appreciated the value of recipes such as these then. Now it is to late to get her recipe, but yours looks and sounds wonderful. Now I have a new one! 🙂 Happy FF!
We have an entire town that is Czech. They have a festival and boy can get some amazing food. Many of my grandmothers recipes have been lost. It is very sad.
Of course I love this dough topped with some fruit – they are always good and not too sweet 🙂
And freeze well! I got 29 rolls from this recipe.
Oh wow these look amazing Julie! Do you deliver 😀
I’ll put on the coffee. Just stop by. 🙂
Pear anything always sparks a craving for me! Love, love, love the use of them in kolaches. You brought back a flood of memories for me, as my grandmother always made these. Her recipe is difficult to read, so I’m pinning this for my holiday baking. Thank you!! 😀
Thank you Nancy. I don’t know if your grandmother would like what I did, but they sure taste good and are easy to make.
This looks delicious! I really want to try it soon.
They were fun and yummy. Not one of those recipes that either are successful or a mess. Go for it!
Kolaches are amazing! Grandma made them every time we would visit.
Thanks Nicole! What was the fillings?
Love that you printed the recipe since I just came back from there. They are quite tasty.
You might want to check this: http://www.balticmaid.com/2011/12/romanian-sweet-cheese-and-raisin-pastries/ or this: http://homecookinginmontana.blogspot.com/2009/01/romanian-cozonac-nut-filled.html
Wow, they look amazing! We had something similar in Romania. I’m going to tell you a secret: they go well with wine. Cheers! 🙂
Love, love, love your pictures!
Ha! Some are filled with meat and cheese. These would definitely be wine worthy! 🙂 What did you call them and what were they filled with?
Haha! Wine worthy – I like that. They were filled mainly with cheese, but also with any kind of jam or poppyseed. As for the names – they have different names, but I think the most popular is “pateuri”. (this is the plural)
I will have to look these up.
I’ve never had these before. They look utterly fantastic!
Thanks Sarah! I enjoyed making them, and have some in the freezer for another day.javascript:void(0)
This looks absolutely delicious. Okay, I’m hungry again lol. Love this
Thank you so much. I had a lot of fun making these. There is so many thinks you can fill these with!
How interesting! Look yummy too!
Thank you. They are very good and probably have a different name according to whomever is making them.
Wow, these are gorgeous! I want to try to make these some afternoon when I have some time to experiment. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. I actually made them while making Halloween cookies with my 4 year old neighbor. It worked well because I was busy during raising time.
They look delicious! Am so impressed you made your own (I am a bit of a lousy baker), they look professional! 🙂
Thank you Petra! I love to cook, but love baking more. Professional? Awe thanks.
They are absolutely yummy 🙂
Um…Yum.
Thank you for visiting Mardra!
These look delicious! I think there are many versions of fruit pastries the world over so adapting them a little with your own heritage couldn’t possibly be sacrilege!
I think you are correct. Heck theres a town in Texas that even claimed them :). Thank you so much for stopping. I really look forward to connecting with Our Growing Edge.
These look so yummy! Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Thanks for stopping by Erin!
Wow, these look great, Julie! I only heard about these on Saturday as I was websurfing, but what a coincidence!
Thanks Dave! We have town around here that actually have festivals where Kolaches are the stars. I know what you mean in coincidences! Seems like as soon as I think of something I want to post it shows up in several places. 🙂
I absolutely loved it! Bookmarking it to try 🙂
Thank you so much!
These remind me of rasberry jam thumb print cookies my step mom and I used to make for the holidays as gifts. They look delicious and I might have to try this recipe 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Cynthia! These are about the size of a danish though. If you make them, let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve never heard of Kolaches, but they look really yummy, gonna have to try these
They are very good if you like slightly sweet breads. Thanks for visiting!
These look amazing Julie….I wonder how it would taste with ready made puff pastry made into pinwheels, with a slight indentation?
I’m thinking “quick” for now, cos I too have some pears that are about to say goodbye 🙂 It looks wonderful!
Oh my gosh these look so good! Thanks for the recipe and history lesson!
Thanks for visiting Kim. Not very reliable history because everyone has their own version! 🙂
Now I just need somebody to come make these for me 😉 I’m not much of a baker… haha!
I’d give you one of mine, but the hubby polished them off! Thanks for stopping!
Added this one to pinterest too! 🙂
Thank you!