Makowiec: Polish poppy seed roll with thin dough and thick filling, no cracks
The Christmas poppy seed roll made from poppy seeds scalded and ground at home, with honey, raisins, walnuts and candied orange peel, rolled in thin yeast dough and baked in a paper parcel that keeps it from cracking. Two rolls: one for the table, one to give away.
Your own work in that: 1 h.
- Poppy seeds scalding 40 min
- Poppy filling 25 min
- Dough 15 min
- Rising 60 min
- Rolling 20 min
- Rising 30 min
- Baking 45 min
Step by step
0 / 9 done
Scald the poppy seeds
Rinse the seeds in a fine sieve, cover with boiling milk in a pot and simmer 20 minutes. Leave covered 20 minutes, then drain very thoroughly in a sieve lined with muslin.
Ingredients: 400 g blue poppy seeds · 500 ml milk · 100 g honey · 100 g sugar · 80 g butter · 100 g raisins · 100 g walnuts · 50 g candied orange peel · 2 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
TipScalded seeds soften, grind easily and lose their bitter edge. Dry seeds in the filling stay crunchy and slightly bitter.
Seeds in hot milk, then drained dry
Grind the seeds
Pass the drained seeds twice through a meat grinder on the finest plate. Without a grinder: blend in a jug blender with 2 spoons of milk, for a long time, until pasty.
Twice through the grinder, into a paste
Make the filling
In a wide pan melt the butter with the honey and sugar, add the poppy paste, raisins scalded with boiling water, chopped walnuts, peel and vanilla sugar. Cook over low heat 10 minutes, stirring. Cool, then mix in the eggs. The filling should be thick and spreadable.
TipEggs into the cold filling, or they scramble. You can also whip the whites and fold them in last for a lighter filling.
Thick filling with dried fruit, spreadable
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with a spoon of sugar, leave 10 minutes. Add the starter, egg and yolks to the flour with the remaining sugar and salt, knead 6 minutes, pour in the butter and knead another 6 minutes. Cover and leave 60 minutes until doubled.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 200 ml milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 80 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 2 pcs egg yolks · 100 g butter · 1 tsp salt
Dough risen and doubled
Roll out and spread
Divide the dough in two. Roll each on a floured cloth into a 30 × 40 cm rectangle, about 4 mm thick. Spread the poppy filling evenly, leaving a 2 cm bare border along one of the short sides. Thin dough, thick filling: those are the proportions.
A 30 × 40 cm rectangle, filling to 2 cm from the edge
Roll tightly
Roll up from the short side, tightly, using the cloth to help, towards the bare edge. Pinch the seam and tuck the ends under. Wrap each roll loosely in baking paper like a sweet, leaving room to rise. Set on a tray seam down.
TipThe paper keeps the roll in check: it rises evenly, doesn't crack and doesn't spread sideways. The simplest route to a makowiec that looks like the bakery's.
Tight from the short side, then into paperSecond rise
Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warm for 30 minutes, until the rolls are visibly puffy — they need not double. Meanwhile heat the oven to 170 °C.
Bake
170 °C, conventional, middle shelf, 40–45 minutes. After 30 minutes you can open the paper on top so the dough browns. Cool in the paper on a rack.
After 45 minutes: golden rolls cooling in their paper
Ice
Work the icing sugar with the lemon juice into a thick icing, drizzle over the cooled rolls and sprinkle with chopped candied orange peel. Slice only when completely cold, with a sharp knife.
Ingredients: 150 g icing sugar · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tbsp candied orange peel
Icing and candied orange peel
Before you start
With ready-made poppy filling
An 850 g tin replaces the seeds, honey, sugar and dried fruit. Add 100 g walnuts and 2 eggs to it; good, though not like homemade.
The roll cracks
Dough too thick for the filling, or rolled too loosely. Paper solves most of it; the rest is the proportions in step 5.
Storing
In paper and foil, 5 days somewhere cool. Freezes very well whole, without icing; ice after thawing.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
