Breakfast Kolaches: Dough stuffed with goodness!

I love anything stuffed inside a carbohydrate shell.  It may not be good for me, but it certainly is delicious.  My husband taught me how to make awesome cabbage burgers. I always loved growing up in Cleveland surrounded delicious Polish food like pierogies.  I am always surprised how few people know what these delectable pockets of goodness entail!  Last year, Sam and I even used our homemade pasta maker to make our very own pierogies...delicoius!  However, all of these tasty treats will have to wait until a later post.  Today I will focus on a new-found love- kolaches!

Moving back to the midwest, made it possible for me to finally attend The McDonald Family Christmas, which I have always loved.  I hadn't been in many (7 years)- yikes! Flights from Colorado were always astronomical at that time of the year.  It is always a festival full of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, games, wine, beer, and food. LOTS of food!  This year was also a bit different for me. I was now the oldest cousin of 13, and at least 12 years older than many of my first cousins, I was in for a surprise.  My last family holiday celebration included a multitude of little munchkins running around the basement or swooning over the presents under the tree.  Now all of my "little" cousins had suddenly grown up, are in college, and well...were giving myself and my sisters some competition when it came to beer pong, Dance Revolution, and well...wine. Lots of it.

One of the other new things I discovered while in Indianapolis for this family event, was the kolache.  In short- dough stuffed with goodness.  In Indy there is even a place that served up a variety of these delectable carb-coma- inducing meals- The Kolache Factory. We would order them for breakfast one morning and bring them back to the house to serve the masses.  Kolaches can have just about any filling you could desire: fruit, cream cheese, eggs and sausage, ham and Swiss, pepperoni and mozzerella, potato...I even recently read about someone taking their Thanksgiving leftovers and stuffing it into a kolache.  Pretty much anything goes!

When Sam and I saw these at Christmas, we both remarked, "Hey- we can make these!" And so I did.

As I mentioned, you can pretty much choose any filling you want that sound good to you.  I opted for a breakfast blend this time because we ran out of breakfast burritos, and we need something quick to reheat for breakfast on weekday mornings. I chose to do egg, cheese, and bacon, although sausage was tempting too. I had some leftover onions and red peppers in the fridge from BBQ Chicken Wraps and wanted to use them before they want bad, so I sauteed them and threw them into the egg mixture.

Ingredients: 

2 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits

OR 

16 Rhode's frozen rolls, thawed and risen

1 bag of Shredded Cheese

1 bag frozen Shredded Hash Browns

1 package of Cooked Bacon

8 Scrambled Eggs

1 Egg for top of Biscuits

Any assorted, sauteed veggies you have on hand that you would like to include

First, cook your bacon.  Here is a trick that we use all the time that very few people know about: Use your oven to cook the bacon. It is super easy and use foil on the cookie sheet to catch the grease.  Set the oven at 400 degrees and cook for 20 minutes. 

Next cook your hash browns. 

Scramble your eggs.  I added the sauteed veggies. 

Next, let the bacon cool from the oven. Then crumble. 

 Whisk an egg in a bowl with about a tablespoon of water.  Set aside for later. 

Roll out each biscuit or Rhodes roll with a rolling pin or glass. Roll until it is flat. 

On the rolled-out dough, place a small scoop of the egg mixture, some potatoes, bacon, and then cheese. (I always put too much in the first few and then learn my lesson.) Make sure all fillings are room temperature! 

Carefully fold up the sides one at a time, pinching the dough together. 

Then flip the kolache over and put pinched-side down on a well-greased cookie sheet. Now, brush the top of each pocket with the egg and water mixture.  This will give them a nice golden color when they come out of the oven. 

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on each of the pastries. 

Put in the oven and cook at cook at 425 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Every oven varies so I would check at 8 and if they aren't brown yet wait and check again until they are done.

We ate these for breakfast for the past two days and still had plenty left to freeze for later.  I put them in individual Ziplock baggies and stuck them in the freezer.  To reheat, pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until warm. 

Maybe next time, I will try another filling and make some for dinner!   

For my Colorado and Ohio peeps: Upon further inspection, I found that there are Kolache Factory locations also in Lakewood, Colorado (IF I had only known....) and in Cincinnati, Ohio!  Currently the closest to me is in Brentwood, MO.... Maybe my cousin Maddy can pick me one up!