Every Slavski Kolač is beautiful but when bakers take time to create carefully crafted decorations it’s truly something special. I’ve “helped” both my mother and grandmother make decorations for our Kolač many times using leftover bread dough. However, they just never turned out as wonderful as photos I’ve seen online or even other breads I’ve seen when we’d attend someone’s Slava. It worked for us and that’s how we always decorated our Kolač. But I knew I could take it one step further and get those same decorations myself when the time came for me to take on the responsibility of making it for our family once I was married. Enter my handcrafted recipe.
When I asked various sources how to get decoration dough they would simply say “flour, water, salt”. No measurements, not even “od prilike” measurements. So I figured I’d try measurements I thought would work and see how it would turn out. And what do you know, it worked!
The measurements for this unique dough are:
- 1 1/2 cup flour (230 g)
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup water (150 ml)
That’s it! Combine those together and knead the dough until it reaches a texture similar to Playdoh/plastelin. This takes about 4-5 minutes of kneading. Once the dough is nice and semi-soft, roll it out and use cookie cutters (like the ones I talked about on my recent Instagram story from the IG company called Strivami) or make your own by hand. Once you’ve shaped your dough, place the decorations on a piece of parchment paper and let them dry. I would make these the day before you need to use them and keep them uncovered on your counter until the next day. Then, when your bread dough is ready, place these on top and bake the bread as usual. So simple and so beautiful!
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My decorations do not come out white, why?
Please advise.
For decorations I use flour and water, when bread is done
I paint the decorations with sugar water.
Hi Aleksandra,
Are you making these and then immediately baking them with the bread? That could be the issue as they do need to dry a bit beforehand. My first instinct was that you may not be using bleached flour but maybe another type of flour?
Hope this helps!
Nevena