This recipe has been translated from a german magazine many years ago. The original version uses poppy seed paste for the filling. I am not able to find it here, am constantly carrying from Ankara. I was out of my stocks this time and I replaced it with chestnut pureé. It was ok as the taste but cannot beat the earthiness of poppy seed. The paste is a common ingredient in Turkish cuisine. Poppy seeds are dry roasted and grinded while hot; with their own oil which emerges when heated, plus a little sun flower oil. The result is a dark, thick paste, which has to be thinned by adding more oil or some milk and sugar, according to your purpose. You may use it in sweet or savoury bakes.
I used unsweetened chesnut pureé for the filling and added the rest of the ingredients in usual order. I also put around 100 grs melted chocolate to the filling, hoping that it would end up as a dense mixture when it gets cooler. But I was wrong. So it was a bit trickier than usual, to place the rolled dough in the pan. This is another good reason for using the original ingredients:-) You will need a releasable 24cm bundt pan for this recipe.
- 500 grs all purpose flour
- 200 ml warmed milk
- 80 grs sugar
- 80 grs butter (melted)
- 1 egg (at room temperature)
- 1 sachet dry yeast
- shredded lemon peel
- 1 pinch of salt
- 250 grs poppy seed paste
- 100 grs finely chopped walnuts
- 125 ml milk
- 1 egg
- 100 grs sugar
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar for dusting the cake
Place the yeast in the center of the bowl and add 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1/3 of the warmed milk, mix well and wait until bubbles form. Then add the rest of the ingredients, make a somewhat hard dough. Knead a couple of times on a floured surface and place it back in the bowl. It will be softer after the rising process. Leave it in a warm corner in your kitchen for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, brake the lumps of poppy seed paste by using a fork and add milk and the egg, to soften it a bit. Add sugar, mix well until it melts throughly.
Heat the oven to 200C . Place the dough on the kitchen counter and roll to a 30X50 cm rectangle. If you are using a cake pan with 24 cm in diameter, this dimentions are fine. If your pan is wider; you had better stretch the dough a little more, in order to make ends meet. Spread the filling until the edges with a big spatula. Roll the dough out and, by holding firmly from both ends, place it in your greased cake pan. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough deeply as shown above. Try to leave the corners free from one another, to allow them to rise to a star shape. Bake the cake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. You can reduce the oven temperature to 180C in the last ten minutes to prevent over browning. Sprinkle the cake with icing sugar while it is hot. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Afiyet olsun:-)
what a lovely shape Tulin..Very lucky that I have a lot of poppy seed paste :)
Lucky indeed:-) Hope you will like the result:-)
It's interesting to learn that you also use poppy seed in the Turkish cuisine. It's very common in Northern Austria (Waldviertel where there are large plantations) and of course, beyond the frontier, in Bohemia. It has always been used in different Mehlspeisen (sweet warm dishes) but also sweet pastries, very often acccompanied by two other popular ingredients: a very thick plum jam and milk curd. We always grind poppy seed cold and cook it in milk with sugar added to it, or we use it together with melted butter and icing sugar to sprinkle it over hot and filled sweet dumplings :-) Your recipe is tempting as usual. By the way, yesterday I made your poricini & pomodori secchi risotto (I also added prosciutto which I happened to have at home) - much to our satisfaction. Hugs, angelika
I love the way you've cut the pastry to get that nice pattern on the top! I think I'll borrow that idea one day..
Thank you Angelika, I am glad that you liked risotto, you are already cooking professionally, I can only be the helper:-) Also thank you for the information about poppyseed, I really did not know that they have plantations over there. That explains why I can find so many recipes in german. Hugs
Hi Pille, go ahead, surely you will come up with something very tasty:-) Thank you
Another interesting recipe. I love the design on the top! So visually pleasing.
Best,
Paz
Thanks a lot Paz:-)
The STAR is the real eye-catcher, what a great technique!
Thank you ak:-) Great to have compliments from professionals:-)
very good idea! I will try it at immediately!
What a gorgeous cake! This is absolutely mouth-watering to look at! I'm also surprised that poppy seeds are used in Turkish cuisine. For me, they've always been my favorite topping on a Czechoslovakian kolace.(pronounced kol-ACH-key) This looks way better, though!
Thank you Baking Fairy, I follow your lovely blog as well...
Welcome Susan, you are also sharing tasty recipes in your blog. I loved the idea with milke fudge. A lovely presentation! A very smart way you named your blog:-)
This looks gorgeous! I have just discovered your delightful blog today, and I wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying it! I really love your writing and the pictures *and* the recipes all sound delicious. I believe I'm going to be trying many of them in the days and weeks to come---this beautiful poppy seed cake will perhaps be the first! Now to get some poppy seed paste....*smile*
Thanks a lot Josie! I am so glad that you liked the recipes. Hope to have good results with the recipe:-)
I would like to know where to buy/order or how to make poppy seed paste. I live in western North Carolina, USA and I've never found it in food stores here. I see a hint in angelika's blog, but I'd like to know for sure before I create yet one more mess in my kitchen. Beautiful bread. I love bread. :)
Thanks Gma and welcome. Unfortunately I don't know where exactly you can find poppyseed paste. I only know that eastern food shops are selling it or perhaps you can order online from a dealer. It is also possible to make it at home but a long way to go... Glad you liked the recipe:-)