An amazingly delicious apple cinnamon sweet roll dressed up as a candy cane for the holidays.
Every year we have family over to our house for Christmas breakfast and every year I make Kolaches. Kolaches are a Czechoslovakian pastry. We are not Czech, but when I saw a recipe for them in Better Homes and Gardens in April, 1997, while waiting to see a doctor, I knew my family would love them.
So I asked the receptionist to make a copy of the recipe for me and I’ve been making them ever since. This year, Lori at Recipe Girl posted a fun recipe for Candy Cane Coffee Cake. So I thought it would be fun to make Kolaches in the shape of a candy cane. Which I guess means they weren’t technically Kolaches anymore. But delicious just the same!
I used my favorite roll recipe for the dough (adding a teaspoon of vanilla) and the Daring Baker’s apple filling recipe. Jenny at Picky Palate has me addicted to cinnamon chips and I thought they would be a great addition to the apple filling. So I added half a cup of chips to the filling and added a cinnamon drizzle on top. It tasted amazing! Definitely one I’ll make next year!
Ingredients
- 2 c. bread flour
- 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 t. vital wheat gluten
- 1 pkg. rapid rise (instant) yeast
- 1 c. milk (120º to 130º)
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. butter
- 1 t. salt
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Makes enough for two braids
- 4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup Cinnamon Chips
- 2/3 cup chips
- 1 1/2 teaspoons shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)
Directions
- Mix 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, wheat gluten, and yeast. Heat and stir milk, sugar, butter, and salt until warm. Add to flour mixture, add egg and vanilla. Beat at low speed for 1/2 minute. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.
- Stir in the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. (Add more or less if necessary.) Knead until smooth (6 to 8 min.). Shape into a ball. Place in greased bowl, turn. Cover, let rise until double (45 to 60 Min.). Punch down, let rise again (30 min.), Punch down, let rest 10 min and shape into desired shapes. Cover. Let rise until double (30 min.). Bake at 400º until lightly brown 10 - 15 minutes.
- Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 – 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before adding cinnamon chips and forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.
- 1. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. (I usually roll it out on floured parchment.) If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough (parchment) on the baking sheet.
- 2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, (I use a pizza cutter) each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
- 3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.
- Melt in microwave at high for 1 minute; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
This looks awesome Barbara! Wish I was there enjoying it with you all!
That is beautiful!! Wow!!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Hello Barbara!
Looks amazing ! I love it! …and the taste I know is delicious…apples and cinnamon, my favorites!
XO Nina
In Texas, traditional kolaches are like the State Pastry. This looks like a great adaption of a kolache.
That just looks SO good! I love the candy cane shape, so adorable!!!
Oh yum!! I’ve never heard of these but I would love to try and makes these
What would you suggest to use instead of cinnamon chips? We don’t have them here 
That looks really beautiful, very professional!
That is beautiful! I’ll have to bookmark this one to try. And I have a bag of those cinnamon chips just waiting for inspiration.
Ooh, that looks so yummy! I love the fun candy cane shape.
HoneyB – it was awesome, come visit and I’ll make some!
Aggie – Thanks! Our Christmas was white and wonderful!
Nina – Thanks for the comment. Apples and cinnamon are a perfect duo!
Barbara – I never knew that about Texas. Now I have even more reason to visit. I’m glad I can still call them kolaches!
Kaitlin and Stephanie – It is a fun shape. Perfect for Christmas. I was wondering though what shape I could make for the rest of the year.
Megan – definitely give it a try. I have three more bags in the pantry! They were on sale!
Sara – thanks, that’s such a nice compliment!
Lorraine – I can’t think of anything that would be a great substitute. I’ll have to send you a bag.
Your Kolache looks amazing! So pretty and tempting!
Cheers,
Rosa
This is so beautiful I’d almost not want to eat it!
So pretty! It looks scrumptiously delicious!
MM, soo delicious looking….I’d love this!
Yum! That looks so tasty!
This looks amazing!! Great job! I am so excited to try it! Thanks for posting
I’m a bit late but that is so cool looking!
This just sounds so yummy right now – I’ve had an upset stomach and not able to eat anything but bananas for two days and hot bread sounds so good right now – I must be getting better
This is so beautiful! I love kolaches and I bet this was terrific!
This is beautiful!
You have a very beautiful blog. I'll come back.
Happy New Year.