In last week's post I wrote about the Buchtel and its journey from Bohemia to Vienna as one of many Austrian cakes, pastries, and desserts that were in fact born in what is today the Czech Republic. Today I have another one for you as we continue our culinary voyage: the Topfengolatsche. (In this case, however, as the pastry crossed the border into Austria, it also changed form somewhat.) The Topfengolatsche as the Viennese know it today, as demonstrated by the picture below, is square and consists of Topfen around which a piece of flaky, buttery puff pastry is folded. This word Golatsche -- the first reference to which comes in a Viennese cookbook about Bohemian cuisine from the seventeenth century -- comes from the Czech koláč, though the koláč is (or was) in fact round, made from yeast dough as opposed to pastry, and is in terms of its form more like a crostata in that much of the filling is exposed and the dough seems to simply come up and rise around it. It is open-faced, in other words, and flavoured with either poppy seeds, plum jam (there is it again) or Topfen.
Perhaps here a word or two about Topfen itself. Topfen is the Austrian word for what in Germany is known as Quark. But perhaps that doesn't explain much either. Well, Topfen (or Quark) is a kind of fresh cheese similar to curd cheese, cottage cheese, or at a stretch cream cheese (at least in terms of how its applied). Though all of these are mild and even bland, which is the point, cream cheese, of course, is luxurious and smooth whereas Topfen has a kind of grainy texture. (Indeed, there is a specific kind of Topfen called Bröseltopfen, so-called because the mouth feel resembles that of breadcrumbs.) Though in theory one could make cheesecake out of Topfen, better to use it in something like a Topfenstrudel or, as above, a Topfengolatsche, in which the Topfen is typically scented with lemon zest. The only remaining question is: Should a Topfengolatsche contain raisins? In this case I would argue: Absolutely, for the little nuggets of chewy sweetness break up the sometimes cloying monotony of the Topfen. The best Topfengolatsche are to be found, in my opinion, at the bakery chain Ströck, whose name, no doubt, will reappear in posts to come. And if you can buy one while they're still warm from the oven, even better!
