Recipe: Kolaches (Sorta)

Can someone tell me why, if you get kolaches from a place that isn't Shipley's, Kolache Factory or Olde Town Kolaches, they are all the same? Whether it's a place called Sunshine Kolaches, Happy Doughnuts or Doughnut World, it's hard to tell the difference between them. It's as if somewhere lurking in the underground downtown tunnels is a place that just sends an identical product to every independent kolache factory using one of those bank money movers. It's not that they aren't tasty, just clone-ish.

Since we have a tradition here at work of getting kolaches on Friday mornings, I decided to do something a little different and make homemade "kolaches" right in the kitchen of the office.

Third photo added. Who says we don't listen to our commenters?

When the wife purchased a homemade corn dog maker called The Carnival Corn Dog'rt (which is essentially one of those infomercial-cooks-everything-sandwich deals, but this one is shaped like a corn dog), I knew the possibilities were endless.

My vision for homemade "kolaches" went like this. Grab some pancake batter, little smokies, jalapenos, cheese and precooked bacon, and let co-workers choose which variety they wanted. It could not have gone better.

Although the pancake batter is not exactly like the bread from a kolache, it really did work. Bisquick isn't very sweet, so when the jalapenos and cheese were added, it didn't taste weird and was crispy on the outside. My boss even said that he actually liked them a little better than actual kolaches. Is that blasphemous? I don't care. The boss was impressed, and we had fresh breakfast action on a Friday.