Apricot Kolaches with Curd Cheese and Almond Crumble
·Mix the dry ingredients
Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Add the caster sugar, dried yeast and grated lemon zest, then stir together while still dry.
Add the wet ingredients
Make a well in the mixture and pour in the lukewarm milk. Add the room-temperature egg yolks and the lukewarm melted butter.
Knead the dough
Combine everything and knead thoroughly. Using a stand mixer with a dough hook, knead on medium speed for about 13 minutes. The dough should be smooth, springy, and should not stick to the sides of the bowl.
Let it rise
Lightly oil the dough and the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm spot for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.
Shape the balls
Turn the risen dough out onto a work surface and divide into 15 equal pieces (about 60 g each, or smaller at 45–50 g if you prefer). Roll each piece between your palms into a smooth ball and arrange them, spaced apart, on baking trays lined with parchment paper.
Let them rise a second time
Cover the balls loosely with a kitchen towel on the tray and let them rest for an hour. This will make it easy to shape a thin centre afterwards.
Make the curd cheese filling
In a bowl, combine the curd cheese, ricotta, egg yolks, icing sugar, vanilla sugar and cornflour. Whisk until smooth and creamy.
Prepare the buttery crumble
Put the flour, sugar and cold butter, cut into cubes, into a bowl. Add the almond flakes and cinnamon. Rub everything together with your fingers until it forms buttery crumbs.
Cut the apricots
Pit the apricots and cut them into wedges or quarters. If they're on the tart side, dust them lightly with sugar.
Shape the wells
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (top and bottom heat). Once the balls have relaxed, press the centre of each with your fingers or the floured base of a glass until almost paper-thin, leaving just a puffy rim about 1 cm wide.
Fill the kolaches
Brush the rims with beaten egg. Spoon curd cheese filling into the centre and spread it over the thin base. Arrange the apricots on top of the curd cheese, then generously cover everything with the crumble.
Bake until golden
Put the trays in the oven and bake for about 15–20 minutes. Keep an eye on them — they're done once the edges turn golden and the crumble is nicely crisp.
Brush with Amaretto butter
While the kolaches are still hot, brush the edges with melted butter mixed with a splash of Amaretto. Let them sit for a moment to soak in, then serve.