Good Afternoon!

The Super Bowl here in Missouri was quite the event – as you may have figured since the Kansas City Chiefs were playing! To celebrate, I tried to recreate a delicious stuffed sandwich served at “St. Louis Kolache”. A “kolache” is technically a sweet pastry with fruit in the middle that originated from the Czech. Some say that this is not technically a sweet pastry and therefore not a kolache. But the restaurant calls it that – so I will too! You could use pulled chicken for this recipe if you do not eat pork. Or even try Jackfruit instead of pork mixed with BBQ sauce for a meatless version.

St. Louis Kolache stuffs there’s with a pulled pork from the famous St. Louis Pappy’s BBQ restaurant. I wasn’t about to drive an hour for some pulled pork, so here is how to make some delicious pulled pork:

Purchase a 4-6 pound pork butt or Boston Pork Butt. I try to find one that is trimmed really well. You can purchase a larger one and will have leftover meat. Nothing wrong with that!
Brush the meat with mustard.
Rub a BBQ seasoning all over the meat. I used: 4 Tb brown sugar, 1T kosher salt, 2 t black pepper, 2 t smoked paprika, 2 t garlic powder, 2 t onion powder
Heat an electric smoker to 225 degrees with half apple and hickory wood chips. Allow the meat to rest while it heats up.
Place the pork into smoker. Smoke it for 15-20 hours or until 200 degrees internal temperature
Shred and mix with bbq or top with additional BBQ seasoning.

I used Pappy’s BBQ sauce on the pork which is probably only sold in St. Louis. You can make your own BBQ sauce or purchase your favorite!

The bread dough is an overnight rise, so you do have to make the dough the day before. Since smoking the meat takes all day, we usually smoke our meat the day before anyway. The bread dough is incredibly easy to put together. There is no kneading, no punching, watching rising, no making a window pane with the dough. Just throw it in the mixer and your done! Or mix together by hand, but it really is that simple.

The dough is a little sticky…. but just a little bit of flour on my surface worked beautifully. The dough rolls out flat and stays that way. If you stretch it too much, just start again – it is very forgiving. This was my first time making a stuffed sandwich and all of them turned out edibly delicious!

Pulled Pork Kolache

Tender smoked pulled pork stuffed into a dough and baked.

Print Recipe

Servings 20 kolaches

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt slightly warm
1/2 cup (99 grams) sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
8 Tb butter melted
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 eggs
4 cups (482 grams) unbleached AP flour I used 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 AP and weighed each to total 482 g
2 lbs cooked and shredded pulled pork
1 bottle favorite BBQ sauce

Instructions

In a mixing bowl with the bread hook attached, add the sour cream, sugar, salt and butter. Allow to cool if it is too hot - you don't want to kill the yeast! Add the remaining ingredients and stir on low-medium in the mixer with a bread hook until well combined. The dough is slightly sticky, soft and smooth looking. Mixing with your hands or in a bread machine works, too!
Put plastic wrap on the dough and keep well covered in the fridge overnight.
Prep 2 rimmed cookie sheets with cooking spray or parchment paper. Now it is the next day, you want to have a little flour on your surface. Divide the dough into 20 pieces. Roll each piece out and you will get a 4-5" circle.
Mix your pulled pork with your BBQ sauce. Add as much or as little as you like. Dollop a little less than a 1/4 cup into each circle. Close up the kolache and twist the dough on the bottom. Roll the kolache bottom onto a smooth surface without flour to really seal it. I cup my hand into the letter "C" and roll it about 5 times. Place your 20 kolaches on 2 rimmed cookie sheets. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let rise one hour.
After 30 minutes of rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After the 1 hour rise, place the kolaches into the oven and bake 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly. Reheat any leftovers in the microwave for 30 seconds.
These are delicious dipped in Queso! Or more BBQ sauce! Enjoy warm!