Recipe: Ukrainian Christmas Poppy Seed Roll - Makivnyk

By Hester

Everybody loves this poppy seed roll, even people who don't like poppy seeds love it. NOTE: I recently purchased the new NutriBullet extractor (super powerful 600 watt motor).. It comes with two blades. One blade to extract and blend fruit and vegetables, along with the skins, and stems which is great for drinks, but the best blade of all is the Milling Blade which is perfect for milling oats, nuts and seeds..


When I added the poppy seeds and started to blend them it blended these little seeds to a paste - perfect for my makivnyk. My son is very happy now because now I can make him his favourite poppy seed roll any time he wishes. Most of the time I did not want to do this recipe because of the difficulty and time consuming it took to grind poppy seeds in my little coffee grinder and then by hand with the mortar and pestle. In place of raisins I sometimes use currants.

Ingredients

• FOR THE DOUGH:
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 package yeast (1 tablespoon)
• 3 2/3 cups all purpose or unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 6 tablespoons soft butter
• 1 beaten egg
• Grated peel of 1 lemon
• 2/3 cup warm milk
• FOR THE POPPY SEED FILLING:
• 2 1/3 to 3 cups poppy seeds (ground)
• 1 cup HOT, BOILING, MILK (or light cream)
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• Honey to taste (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond flavouring (or vanilla)
• 3/4 cup golden raisins (or finely chopped up prunes)
• 2/3 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans or walnuts)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs.

Details

Servings 2
Adapted from ukrainiandiaspora.ca

Preparation

Step 1

OPTIONAL: THE DAY BEFORE: Scald with boiling water 2 1/3 cups poppies and drain off the water. I do this about 3 times. I put poppy seeds in a bowl, scald with hot water and wait until the poppies have settled and then pour off the water.

Let stand for 1 hour in hot water. Drain poppies through a cheesecloth covered net sieve. Let them dry preferably overnight. (They still will be a little damp but that is okay.) This way they will smell fresh and taste sweet -- not dusty or bitter. Grind in a coffee grinder, or through finest blade of food chopper or if you are lucky to have a poppy seed grinder. I use a large stone Mortar and Pestle.

FOR THE DOUGH: DISSOLVE: 1/2 cup of warm water, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 package yeast (1 Tablespoon). Let stand about 5 to 10 minutes.

Sift the flour in a large bowl, Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the dissolved yeast. Add around the yeast, the sugar, butter, egg, lemon peel and milk.

MIX dough in the bowl - remove dough from bowl and KNEAD on floured surface for about 10 minutes adding more flour if necessary. This is a soft dough so don't make the dough too stiff. Let rise in a greased bowl, covered, for about 45 to 60 minutes, until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down and divide into TWO parts. Roll each into rectangle on floured board-- approximately 16 to 17 inch by 11 to 11 1/2 inches. Spread HALF with the Poppy Seed Filling leaving a 1/2 inch border free from seeds on each rectangle. Roll up each rectangle from the long side like a jelly roll. Pinch seams to make edges secure and pinch the ends and place under the roll.

Place seal side down on greased baking sheet. Cover, let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes, brush with egg wash or cream. (I use evaporated milk to brush tops) I like to slash tops lightly about 1/4 inch deep and 2 inches apart all the way up the roll.

BAKE: preheated oven 350º degree F. for about 45 to 50 minutes or until done. They should be a nice dark brown colour. If you wish after makivnyk has been baked and cooled you may glaze it with icing sugar. Makes 2 poppy seed rolls.

FOR THE POPPY SEEDS: Stir HOT milk into GROUND poppy seeds, add the rest of the ingredients in the order listed. Stir until cool. Sometimes I like it sweeter so then I add liquid honey to taste. I also might add some ground prunes to the mixture.

You can purchase ground poppies (NOT in a can) from German or Eastern European grocery stores. I still give them a good scalding several times to remove the bitterness and dust from the poppies.

This is a delightful sweet dough. So good with only one egg. Do try this filling, it is one of the best.