33rd Caldwell Kolache Festival

 In 2013 and 2015, I was a judge at the Caldwell Kolache Festival. This year, because of baking so many kolaches in the last 2 months after starting a home-based cottage food business, I decided to enter the baking contest. Though I’ve only been in business since the end of July, the proceeds I’ve made from the business just barely exceeded the limit over which I am considered a “professional.”  Needless to say, baking in my apartment one pan at a time could not compete with the likes of Pearl Snap in Fort Worth (2018 Reserve Professional Grand Champion) and Zamykal Kolaches in Dallas (2018 Professional Grand Champion), both commercial bakeries cranking out huge (and huge numbers of) kolaches. I did not even place, but wasn’t surprised either.

The morning of the contest, I had my alarm set for 3:30 a.m. This was going to give me enough time to make dough for 48 kolaches, fill, and bake them, shower etc., while the dough was rising, get my 9 year old up and ready to go, and be out the door by 8am. I live in Austin and Caldwell is an hour and a half away – there was a deadline of 10am to submit one’s entries into the contest and I wanted to have plenty of time to park and get to where needed to be. My alarm did not go off and I woke up at 5:20 a.m, two hours after I needed to.

I did manage to make dough for 24 kolaches, which gave me 12 kolaches to choose from of two flavors . One must enter 6 kolaches in a flavor category that are the most uniform. I made fig kolaches (to enter into the Other Fruit category) and prune kolaches, thankfully still a category of its own, because of its distinction as one of the Big Four traditional flavors. The other three are, of course, apricot, cheese, and poppyseed. For perspective on the way the trend in flavors is going, the Grand Champions in both the nonprofessional and the professional categories did not win with one of the Big Four flavors.

My son and I barely made it to Caldwell in time and my kolaches suffered – I was very rushed and so worried about making the entry deadline that I took them out of the oven too soon. The feedback on my score sheets from the judges noted that mine weren’t golden on top and were even, gulp, underbaked. Yikes.

A few prize-winning recipes have been published from the Festival and can be seen here and here if you’re interested in the kind of kolaches that are most favored there. 

My son and I did, however, have a wonderful day at the festival. Apparently, festival organizers are trying to get a younger group of people interested in the event. There were several changes that made it more enjoyable than the last time I was there, like greater food truck diversity, polka music under a pavilion for shade, and (though I didn’t take advantage of it), a wine and beer garden tent. It also rained several times during the day, forcing us to retreat to the car a couple of times to listen to podcasts, which was a nice break for a 9-year old waiting hours and hours with me between the time we dropped the kolaches off and the award announcements at 4pm. 

From the kids being pulled around in wagons to the interesting local artists selling their goods, the festival is sweet. And, since the Westfest baking contest was cancelled this year, it’s the only dedicated kolach baking contest in the state. So I’ll attend the 34th annual Caldwell Kolaches Festival next year to support it, but I’ll just eat sausage on a stick, buy crafts, polka dance, and buy other people’s kolaches.