New food truck The Branded Bun brings iconic Texas pastry kolaches to Long Island
Kolaches are the most incredible pastries you've never heard of ... unless, of course, you're from Texas. Then you definitely know.
The sweet and savory buns are practically worshipped in the Lone Star State, where they're a cult favorite, sold everywhere from highway convenience stores to artisanal bakeries. The treats are a legend throughout the Southwest, but are still rather hard to find outside of Texas — unless you've been to the fabulous Brooklyn Kolache in Clinton Hill. And now, a food truck called The Branded Bun is also serving exquisite kolaches on Long Island.
Husband-and-wife team Bruce Vatske and Lynda Buttner, a high-value insurance consultant, wanted to start a businesswith an eye toward retirement, when they were introduced to the idea of kolaches as a franchising opportunity. The two were intrigued so and immediately booked a flight to Austin, Texas, and started eating their way through what's called the Kolache Trail in Central Texas.
Kolaches come by way of Czech immigrants who arrived in Texas through Port Galveston in the 1850s to work as farmers, according to an article in Edible Austin. They brought their pastries with them, stuffing the yeasty dinner rolls with cottage cheese and the European fruits they grew up on, eventually adding New World flavors like pineapple.
"We went to about 20 different places that served kolaches," Vatske said. "We spoke to the owners, we spoke to the bakers. We did our due diligence. and then we came back home and started baking like crazy."
A special-education teacher and school psychologist, Vatske tested his recipes on co-workers who helped him perfect the technique. The process of making the yeasty dough takes 6½ hours, he said, as the dough needs to rise four times. Before baking, he fills his classic sweet cheese kolaches with a mixture of cream cheese, ricotta, lemon zest and sugar and then tops with crunchy butter streusel crumbs called posypka. Fresh out of the oven, the hot kolaches are incredible, like a fluffier cheese Danish.
The truck, which does public and private events, also serves savory kolaches, which also go by the name klobasniky. They can come stuffed with pulled pork, mac-and-cheese or (my favorite), sausage, jalapeño and cheddar. Get both in the No. 1 combo, which comes with a savory and sweet kolache as well as coleslaw and a drink for $16.
Long Island is not a kolache town, but Vatske points out that it does also have a Czech immigrant history. The hamlet of Bohemia was founded by a small group of immigrants who moved from Manhattan in the 1850s for healthier pastures. The name Bohemia refers to a historical region that takes up much of the Czech Republic, although today other immigrants have moved in and the Czech presence is less felt. So you could say the truck is taking the kolache full circle.
The Branded Bun, 516-805-4111, thebrandedbun.com. Upcoming locations and times posted on their website.
Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.
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