Chodské koláče is one of the many types of Koláče. They are traditional in the western part of the country called Chodsko (Chodenland) and you can always spot them thanks to their unique decoration.
Beautifully decorated chodský koláč (pl. chodské koláče) is a large koláč that is home in the region Chodsko around the town Domažlice. They are also called merhované koláče, from merhovat = to decorate koláče in this traditional way. They are one of the more elaborated koláče.
Read also: Koláče, Hanácký koláč, the King among koláče
Table of Contents
Three Crucial Things
While the recipe for chodské koláče can differ family to family, each household can have their tip on how to make their koláč the best one ever, there are three things that make chodský koláč what it is.
Size
Chodské koláče are large, no finger food!
Decoration
Chodský koláč is a round just like any koláč. It is one of the large types and its dough is rolled out quite thin. The filling, which comes on top, is a combination of the three traditional ones – quark cheese (tvaroh), poppy seed and povidla. In Lower Chodsko, the cake is covered with a layer of cheese and then ornaments are “painted” with poppy seed and povidla. This painting is a real artwork of symmetry and nature motifs. In Upper Chodsko, the decoration is painted in stripes. In both cases, the decoration is completed with almonds and raisins.
Rum
Dark Czech rum gives the koláč its distinctive sweet aroma. While some bakers prefer to add rum to the dough, others mix it in the filling (one, two or all three of them). Raisins are soaked in rum over night and to finish, the baked cake is drizzled with hot scream and rum.
And a fourth thing
In the district of Krchleby town, the koláč is decorated also with whipped cream. This is sometimes also called Krchlebský koláč.
Chodský koláč – Recipe
Supplies
(4 – 5 koláče)
The following amounts have been converted to US measurement units exactly. For the purpose of simplification, you can round them up or down in case of 0.1 difference (4.9 to 5.0; 7.1 to 7.0).
Dough
- 430 g/15.2 oz of semi-coarse flour (see Czech Flour Guide)
- 140 g/4.9 oz of unsalted butter
- 100 g/3.5 oz of krupice sugar (superfine, see Czech Sugar Guide)
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 35 ml/1.6 oz of Czech rum
- 35 ml/1.6 oz of heavy cream
- zest from 1/2 lemon
- pinch of salt
- 45 g/1.6 oz of yeast/3 tbsp of dried yeast
- 10 tbsp of milk
Depending on which country you come from, you might be tempted to add more sugar to the dough. Remember though, the koláče dough isn’t supposed to be too sweet, so stick to the given amount.
Filling – Cheese
- 500 g/17.6 oz of quark cheese (tvaroh)
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp of lemon zest
- 140 g/4.9 of sugar
- 1-2 tbsp of Czech rum
- optional: 3 tbsp of vanilla pudding powder
- optional: heavy cream
Especially if you use more liquid quark cheese, you might not need the heavy cream but have the vanilla pudding powder at hand to thicken the filling. If you’re using more dry quark, use cream and/or rum to make it more liquid. The resulting texture should be smooth, not too thick and not too liquid, so these amounts are just approximate, have more at hand.
Filling – Poppy seed
- 200 g/7.1 oz of ground poppy seed
- 150 g/5.3 oz of powder sugar
- 350 ml/11.8 oz of milk
- 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
Add sugar to taste and have more milk and poppy seed at hand to reach the desired thickness.
Filling – Povidla
- 400 g/14.1 oz of povidla
- optional: 1-2 tbsp of Czech rum
Glaze and Decoration
- 1 egg
- 100 ml of milk
- 40 ml of Czech rum
- raisins soaked with rum over night
- Almond halves or slices
- optional: vanilla sugar
- optional: whipped cream
Other
- Rolling pin
- Cake decorating set – you can also just use a plastic bag with cut corner
How to make Chodské koláče
Dough
Heat up the milk to slightly warm, stir in the yeast and add 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour. Cover and let the yeast start rising.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Then add the yeast started, eggs, butter (diced), rum and cream and knead until you have a lightly sticky and uniform dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough double in volume. Then split the dough in four or five equal parts, make small loafs, sprinkle them with some flour, cover and let them rise some more. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
Preparing fillings
To make the cheese filling, separate egg whites from yolks and beat the egg whites until firm. Combine the tvaroh and egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and rum. Thicken with vanilla pudding powder, thin down with cream and/or more rum.
Then stir in the whisked egg whites.
To prepare poppy seed filling, place the ground poppy seed, milk, sugar and cinnamon in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer while stirring.
Let is simmer while stirring until the poppy seed mixture has no visible paddles of milk in it and has the right consistency to decorate with. This might take a little practice, so just try how your mixture works with your cake decorating set, you can always thicken or thin it down later.
As for povidla, homemade is best but if you can’t get any, even plum/prune jam will do. You can thin it down with some rum or just use your povidla as they are.
Read also: Povidla
Decorating
Do the following with each piece of dough: Roll it out round and thin on a piece of baking paper. The piece you see in the picture was less than 5 mm/0.2 in and it was just the perfect width when baked. Just bear in mind that the dough will raise a lot during the baking, so you have to roll it out thin.
At this point, transfer sheet with the rolled out dough to the baking tray.
I recommend glazing the edges with whisked egg first. If you forget or just want to, you can do this later as well.
Spread a nice thick layer of cheese filling over the cake, leaving only about 1 cm/0.4 in of edge.
Fill your cake decorating set with the two remaining fillings. I recommend having one set for each filling so you don’t need to wash the tip constantly as you switch between the fillings.
The decoration is up to you. I like to start with tracing the main ornament.
Create ornaments with povidla and poppy seed.
As I mentioned, in Upper Chodsko, the decoration is done in stripes. Although I fist covered the cake with cheese and then added stripes of povidla and poppy seed, the traditional way to do this would be to add the cheese also in stripes.
Decorate also with almonds and raisins. I skipped the latter because no one in our family eats raisins, they would just end up in the trash, so I make chodské koláče without them.
Instead of raisins, I add small portions of the filling to where I would otherwise place the raisins. If you haven’t yet, glaze the edges of the cake with whisked egg.
Baking and Finishing
Preheat your oven to 180°C/356°F and bake each cake for 20 minutes or until the edges of the cake are nicely golden-brown (not yellow, that’s underbaked!).
While the cakes bake, mix and heat up the cream and rum for glazing.
Drizzle the cake with the mixture while its still hot. It will soak into the cake and make it soft. You can also sprinkle it with vanilla sugar. And if you want to make Krchlebské koláče, decorate also with whipped cream.
