Hey y’all!
The theme this month for the Bread Bakers group is SEEDS! I looove seedy breads.
My initial thought when I saw this theme was to do some more experimenting with sourdoughs. I’ve been having lotso fun with Kip (my starter) and some specialty flours I nabbed from school after my bread baking class.
Buuuut, I just finished this enriched yeast breads workshop at school and we had a little homework to research an enriched bread from our heritage and then make it in class.
My dad’s side of the family is Polish, Hungarian, German, among tons of other Eastern European things so I thought that this Makowiec (ma-KOH-viets) would be a perfect bread to double dip in the Bread Baker event and for my homework. I was able to make it at school and take it home for blogging purposes. 🙂
First off, for people who don’t know… Makowiec is the Polish take on a common European poppy seed roll bread made with a sweet enriched yeast dough wrapped around a delicious citrus-y filling (made with an obscene amount of poppy seeds. Like… SO. many. A pound.).
It’s got candied orange peel, almonds, honey. So much flavor. The filling is admittedly a little time intensive, and you can buy canned fillings in the ethnic isles of some grocery stores. But homemade filling can’t be beat.
It’s a realllyyy unique bread in that the filling is twice as thick as the bread, and it’s all about the poppy seeds. When I was researching for my homework assignment, I learned that the bread is really common around the holidays because the poppy flower is seen as a symbol of good fortune and fertility.
Eating this bread studded with poppy seeds around the holidays was supposed to bring prosperity to the new year! But, in Poland this bread is found year round and very typically enjoyed with tea. 🙂
Ingredients: (Recipe adapted from The Cooking Channel)
Dough:
6 ounces unsalted butter, cold
5 cups ap flour
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks (keep the whites)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Filling:
1 pound poppy seeds
1/2 cup chopped almonds
4 ounces butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup candied orange peel
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 egg, beaten
2 egg whites
Milk and poppy seeds for glazing
Glaze: (optional)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or enough for desired consistency)
Dough: In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter and flour. Using a pastry cutter, or your finger tips work the butter into the flour. Then add the powdered sugar and lemon zest, and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, add the yeast, granulated sugar, eggs, egg yolks, sour cream and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the wet to the dry and mix on low with a dough hook for 5 to 8 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Place in an oiled bowl in a warm place to rise for 2 hours. While rising, make the filling.
Filling: Place the poppy seeds in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 40 minutes. Drain through a fine mesh sieve and transfer to a food processor. Blend the seeds for 4 minutes. Add the raisins, orange peel, almonds and lemon zest and pulse until you have a paste. Melt the butter in the same sauce pan on the stove and add the sugar, honey, vanilla and paste mixture. Cook on medium low, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before adding the beaten egg. In the bowl of your stand mixer (or by hand like I did :-P) beat your whites to stiff peaks. Fold into the poppy seed mixture. Store the refrigerator until the dough is ready.
Assembly and bake: After the dough has doubled in size, knock it down gently and knead in the bowl a couple times. Transfer to a work surface and divide in 4. Roll each portion into a rectangle and divide the filling evenly among the 4. Jelly roll it, and then decide if you want to do a different shape. Transfer to a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to proof for 1 hour (until it springs back slowly when poked gently). Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Brush with milk and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before glazing.
Yep, that filling takes a bit more effort than I anticipated. And a lot of ingredients. That’s why I was so happy to make this bread at school where we had candied orange peel made, and tons of poppy seeds etc. Made it a lot more fun! 😀 The recipe makes 4 rolls total (so you can definitely halve it). I did two simple logs and two fancier version with the glaze.
So tasty and such a nostalgic set of flavors. Yummy citrus and seedy deliciousness. And there are so many different takes on how to make this bread. If you love poppy seeds as much as I do, give this guy a go!
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. This month’s theme is Seeds, and his hosted by Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the delicious breads with seeds:
- Amaranth Banana Nut Quick Bread from Magnolia Days
- Anadama Bread from Baking in Pyjamas
- Bird Seed Bread from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Crunchy Seed Braid from A Shaggy Dough Story
- Everything Dutch Oven Bread from Chef Mireille’s East West Realm
- Hearty Seed Dinner Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Khobz Mzaweq – Moroccan Decorated Bread from Food Lust People Love
- Lemon Chia Quick Bread from Basic N Delicious
- Lemon Curd Poppy Seed Bread from A Baker’s House
- Lemon Poppy Seed Bread from The PinterTest Kitchen
- Multigrain and Seed Bread Extraordinaire from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Multigrain Bread with Flaxseeds from Cooking Club
- Pain Petri (Moroccan Challah) from Passion Kneaded
- Seeded Club Soda Bread from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Sesame Studded Grissini from Ruchik Randhap
- Simit – Turkish Ring Bread from Spice Roots
- Six Seed Soda Bread from Bakers and Best
- Sunflower Seed Bread from My Catholic Kitchen
- Sunflower Seed Bread from Kids and Chic
OMG I want THE WHOLE THING and RIGHT NOW!
Me too!! Yum!!!
Wow this is really remarkable. I’ve never had something with such a large amount of poppy seeds but this seems like a great recipe to try. Hopefully it will come out as nicely as yours!
This is what my Mom use to make….but you have to have small slices because it’s so rich.
That is a lot of poppy seeds! I didn’t know they would hold together in a filling like that and you bread is picture-perfect.
You can buy canned poppyseed paste already made in most ethnic foods stores.
I am really loving all the poppy seed breads. Yours looks particularly delicious.
As always, Sophie, you impress me. Both the roll and the fancier loaf are absolutely stunning. I hope you got the highest score in the class and, if not, I’d like to see the bread that beat you. That just doesn’t seem possible.
Great choice for this month. My husbands family is also Polish and we always have poppy seed rolls at Christmas.
I can’t wait to see what you do when you complete school! Impressive!
One pound of poppy seeds!!! Yowser! How cool that you could kill two birds with one stone.. homework and a blog post! That bread is stunning!
This is a first for me as I have never made this but have bought from a bakery before. I find the dough is extremely heavy, is this supposed to be? My filling turned out amazing and just waiting to see if my dough will rise.
Hi Judith. Yes, it will be a bit of a stiffer dough! But that just helps keep in all that filling. Hoping it worked out okay for you!
I love the filling in the bread.Soft,browned beautiful designed bread awesome…….
wow – I have no words. This is truly a work of art
WOW! Those poppy seeds look amazing in this ROLL!
Wow! Your bread is a work of art, a masterpiece, simply beautiful – I had come across something similar in a cookbook but it wasnt half as beautiful as your bread!
This is also a CZECH custom! We bought our poppy seed from Pancers in Chicago. My grandmother and my mother taught me to make this.
Bread look yummy! I would rather nut bread than poppy!
I hate to ask such a blasphemous question when you have made such a great filling, but when pressed on time, can you use canned? And if so how many cans per roll?
Thanks!
You did great job baking this polish poppy cake,i do bake them too,and i know its such a long process to make the poppy seeds filling,so for the last few years im buying a can of poppy seed already mix with other good staff in polish store and its much easier .We just love it this kind of cake but some people never tried anything with poppy seeds .I would love to learn how did you make the cirle shape ,looks amazing on the plate.Thanks and keep the good job.
I, also, would love to know how to make the circle shape, do you cut the loaves and then shape into circle?
Hi there. The circular one was just shaped the same way as the log version, but I joined the ends to make a circle (like a bagel). Then I made even slices, about 2/3 of the way through the dough so that they could be fanned out. Hope that helps!
We make something Very similar but we called it Moganbigal( not sure of the correct spelling) we are from German heritage. We would grind the poppyseed first and then cook but this seems like an easier option.
This looks like a great recipe, but you forgot one main ingredient….. Salt….. I would think 1 teaspoon for the amount of yeast and flour that’s being used.
Thank you for checking out my site Larry. I actually followed a Makowiec recipe from the Cooking Channel that did not call for salt in the dough, although I’m sure it would be a welcome addition.
I live in Canada! Where can I buy the already prepared poppy seed filling?
Hi there! I’m so sorry, I’m not familiar with stores in Canada. If you have access to Amazon, they have a canned poppy seed filling available that I believe would work. Just search “poppy seed filling” or “masa makowa”. I hope that helps!
I made this bread yesterday and it was a labor intensive venture but the result was stunning. The bread is not only delicious but a feast for the eyes as well. It made two horse shoe shaped loaves that I scored around the outside to make easy serving portions as in the photo above.
Hi Linda! So glad you enjoyed the recipe. It is A LOT of work, but so worth it! 🙂
Hi, Sophie!
I’ve made similar poppy seed rolls in the past and am just wondering how your dough is so thin despite you letting it proof first! Mine always seems too thick or it bursts along the sides (I assume from the steam. Even despite being pricked all the way to the bottom before baking!)
I have seen some folks tightly wrap their rolls in parchment to prevent them from rising much… but then what’s the point of using all that yeast..?! Plus you didn’t wrap and still got thin dough!
Sorry about all the questions! Apparently I’m a baking scientist at heart and need all the answers. 😉
I will write again once I have had a chance to bake some from your recipe!
Hi there. I can’t be sure without seeing the recipes you’ve used, but it sounds like your loaves are possibly overproofing if they are splitting/bursting at the sides. Let me know if/how you get along with this recipe! Hope it works for you. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
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