Sweet Science - Strawberry Kolache

Strawberry Kolache - Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Kolache Pastry Pieces and a Strawberry Swirl

Today we do the third of four holiday flavors from the Saint Paul-based Sweet Science brand.  This one is called Strawberry Kolache.  It is based on a Czech pastry which goes by several different spellings:  kolache, koláče or kolacky.  I often hear it pronounced as "ko-latch-key."  It is very close to a danish, but the dough is a bit denser and sweeter instead of the light, flaky consistency of a danish.  This should be interesting!

But before we proceed, I must acknowledge that this is my 400th pint review!  As with the previous three century reviews (here, here and here) I like to make a collage of the pint images:

Pints 301-400

That's a lot of ice cream!  A fairly diverse set of brands in that image, too.  I keep thinking that I'll run out of flavors, but it does not seem close to happening yet.  Stay tuned!

On to Strawberry Kolache!  Removing the lid,  There is quite a bit of strawberry sauce visible right away on top.  Some of it with a complex-looking texture.  I'm not sure if that is the pastry mixed in or if the strawberry has been blended into some sort of jam.  The cream cheese is fairly white.  Digging in, the strawberry flavor is quite good.  It does taste a bit like a jam.  It has a very good flavor.  Not too sweet or too tart and it is balanced very well by the cream cheese base.  The kolache pastry pieces were distributed throughout the pint.  They were of decent size and had a consistency halfway between crunchy and chewy.  They were quite good and added some good texture to the pint.  It's quite common to include shortbread/shortcake or cheesecake with strawberry in an ice cream flavor.  I think these kolache chunks in a cream cheese base provide a fun and unique twist on that idea.

I really enjoyed this pint.  This is one of the better strawberry flavors that I have had.  The jam delivered just the right amount of strawberry flavor, the cream cheese balanced it well and the pastry made it fun and interesting.  Plus, although this is technically a holiday flavor, it doesn't feel specifically Christmas-y to me, so one could easily enjoy this flavor year-round.