Polish Poppy Seed Roll
This is a classic Polish Easter cake, that’s really too good to reserve for just Easter. It’s a pastry consisting of a roll of sweet yeast bread with a dense, rich, bittersweet filling of poppy seed (an alternative filling is a paste of minced walnuts, or minced chestnuts). The ‘lucky’ poppy seeds in the filling are traditionally used to symbolize wealth.
Prep time 35 minutes/Cook time 30 minutes/Serves 12
Ingredients:
350g (12 ½ oz) strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust
1x7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
¼ tsp fine salt
50g (1 ¾ oz) caster sugar
150ml (3/5 cup) milk
50g (1 ¾ oz) diced butter, softened
1 medium egg, plus1extra yolk
½ tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
For the filling
100g poppy seeds
75g (3 oz) of butter
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
50g (1 ¾ oz) raisins
2 tbsp clear honey
75g (3 oz) light muscovado (or brown) sugar
50g (1 ¾ oz) walnuts
50g (1 ¾ oz) chopped mixed peel or dried apricots
To decorate
3 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
Juice of ½ lemon
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6).
Combine the flour, yeast, salt and caster sugar in a mixing bowl. Warm the milk in a pan or the microwave until just hot to the touch, then stir in the butter so that it softens and starts to melt, before pouring everything into the flour mixture (the butter doesn’t need to be completely melted). Add the whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla, then mix until it all comes together as a soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and silky (or 5-8 minutes on a low speed if you’re using a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook).
Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for 1½ – 1¾ hours or until it has doubled in volume.
For the filling, combine the poppy seeds (reserve 1 teaspoon for decorating), butter, vanilla, raisins and honey into a food processor and blend until well combined. Add the sugar, walnuts and mixed peel or apricots; blend very briefly just to roughly chop the walnuts.
Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Knock back the risen dough lightly then roll out to a thin rectangle about 23 x 33cm (9 x 13 in). Spread the poppy seed mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 2cm (4/5 in) border all the way round. Roll up like a swiss (jelly) roll, from the shortest side so that you get as many swirls of filling as possible. Transfer to a baking paper-lined tray, sitting it with the seam side down, then tuck the ends of the roll under to seal the filling in. Cover with oiled clingfilm or a clean damp tea towel, and set aside in a warm place to prove again for a further 90 minutes, or until doubled in volume.
Transfer the cake to your pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (160°C fan/360°F/gas mark 4) and continue cooking for a further 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. It should sound hollow when the base is tapped.
Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice then brush the mixture over the top of the roll while it is still warm. Sprinkle with poppy seeds, or simply dust with icing sugar. Allow to cool then serve in slices.
