Christmas Poppy Seed Cake. Makowiec

Poppy seed Cake called Makowiec, is the second most important Christmas cake after Gingerbread, which absolutely can’t be missing during Christmas time. The secret of the ideal cake lies in its poppy seed filling, which means the more filling the better.
According to tradition, Makowiec is usually baked as a strudel, but as a big fan of poppy seed, I prefer minimum dough and lots of filling.

Makowiec is incredibly moist, aromatic and keeps fresh for a long time. The only problem with making this cake is poppy seed, which isn’t that popular in Western Europe.
There are 3 different types of poppy seed (white, black and blue), the most common is black poppy seed, which is used in many recipes. You can buy some poppy seed at the health store or shops with imported food from the East (like Poland or Latvia), sometimes you can also buy ready to use poppy filling, which is really good and can save you a lot of time. I can honestly recommend Bakalland brand. It’s perfect!
If you can’t find ready to use poppy filling, you can make it yourself. It’s not so difficult as long as you use a good grinder.

Christmas Poppy Seed Cake. Makowiec



Ingredients:

Poppy seed filling:
500g dried poppy seed
2/3 cup of honey
4-5 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur (optional)
½ cup glace fruit

or
a can of ready to use poppy seed filling from Bakalland (850g)

Cake:
poppy seed filling
110g (1/2 cup)caster sugar
3 eggs, separated yolks and whites
4 tablespoons semolina

Pastry (top and bottom of cake)
80g cold butter
60g (1/2 cup) ground almond
110g (3/4 cup) plain flour
60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
1-2 tablespoon water


Method:

Poppy seed filling:
1. Place poppy seed in a large bowl and pour boiling water (2-3 litres) over to soften for 12h (overnight).
2. Next day drain and grind twice poppy seed in a mincer.
3. Place ground poppy seed in a large bowl and add honey, Amaretto and glace fruit. Mix well.

Pastry:
4. Preheat oven to 200C
5. Process flour, icing sugar, ground almond and butter until crumbly. Add water; process until mixture comes together.
6. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Enclose with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes
7. Roll two-third of the pastry; large enough to fit 23cm flan tin.
8. Lift pastry into tin, ease into base; bake 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool to a room temperature.

Cake:
9. Preheat oven to 170C
10. Beat 3 egg yolks with sugar until creamy (5-7minutes). Fold poppy seed filling and semolina into yolks mixture, in two batches.
11. Beat 3 egg whites in a separate medium bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold gently into poppy seed mixture in two batches.
12. Line side of round tin with baking paper; extending paper 5cm above edge.
13. Pour poppy seed mixture over pastry base. Bake 50 minutes.

14. Meanwhile, roll remaining pastry on floured surface, cut star shapes.
15. After 50 minutes of baking remove cake from the oven and arrange pastry stars over poppy seed cake.
16. Bake again for 20-30 minutes until pastry stars are lightly browned.
17. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan until completely cold.

Enjoy :-)