sausage gravy kolache

I was introduced to the miraculous stuffed pillow pocket that is kolache last summer. It was my first day at my current job, the office manager walked me to the kitchen for catered breakfast (as is the Friday tradition here), when she inquired innocently enough, "have you ever had kolaches?"

If you're familiar with my personality, you know that hearing about a dish for the first time excites the shit outta me. The Kolache Factory is the only restaurant in STL that makes these, I am told, and my lord, are they on top of their game. I love the sausage gravy and spinach-artichoke ones, as pictured below:

I was so taken with these little bastards, I had to recreate them for my family at home. Here is the result: 

Mine were much larger than the ones from The Kolache Factory, but were amazing in their own right. I searched around for a good sausage gravy kolache recipe, and found this one that looked fit to use. 

The dough is a basic yeast dough: proof yeast in warm water with sugar before, then cream butter, sugar, salt and egg yolks together in a separate bowl before adding the yeast mix, some milk, and some flour. I used my kitchen aid for this, with the dough hook attachment, making short work of my mixing. 

Let the dough rise on your counter for an hour and a half, then divide into balls and rest for ten minutes or so. Make sausage gravy filling: cook sausage, remove meat, add butter and flour, then milk and pepper until thick, then add the sausage to the gravy. I cooked my gravy a little longer to thicken it up before filling the dough with it. 

Take a dough ball in your hand, flatten a bit, scoop some gravy into the center, then form the edges of the dough together, trapping the filling within. Set these seam-side down on a baking sheet, then rest for another half hour or so before baking at 350F for fifteen minutes or so, until golden brown.

Here is my result:

These were not as good as the store-bought ones, I'll openly admit that, which only serves as encouragement to attempt this recipe again and again, adjusting as necessary until I'm wholly satisfied with the result. Definitely give these a try, you can stuff them with damn near anything and this recipe makes a TON. I'm thinking they freeze well, but don't quote me on that until I eat a frozen/reheated one. Try em out!