Unlike traditional Croatian poppy seed roll (makovnjaca) made with yeast dough, this one uses crumbly pastry/cookie dough.

MAKOVNJACA (Poppy Seed Roll)
MAKOVNJACA (Poppy Seed Roll) - traditional croatian dessert
Course:
Dessert
Cuisine:
Croatian
Keyword:
makovnjaca poppy seed roll
Servings: 2 rolls
Ingredients
- DOUGH
- 250-300 g (9-10 oz) flour, sieved
- 2 ts baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 120 g (4 oz) butter, sof
- 60 g (2 oz) sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch of cinnamon
- grated zest of 1/4 lemon
- a little cold milk
- FILLING
- 250 g (0.5 lb) poppy seeds, finely ground
- 150 g (5 oz) sugar
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 40 g (1.4 oz) breadcrumbs
- 40 g (1.4 oz) raisins, to your taste
- 1 pinch of cinnamon
- 3 Tbsp rum
- 1/4 l (1 cup) milk
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
-
DOUGH: Sieve the flour and mix with baking powder and salt. Add soft butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, and lemon peel. Kneed into dough adding a little bit of cold milk. Cover dough and let stand in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
-
FILLING: Put ground poppy seeds in a small pan together with sugar, honey, raisins, cinnamon and rum. Cook over low heat until thick. The filling has to be smooth and a little wet. If it turns out too wet, add breadcrumbs after it cooled out. If it's too dry, add a little bit of milk.
-
Roll the dough on a baking paper into a 45x40 cm (18x16 inches) rectangle and cut into 2 equal parts. Spread poppy seed filling equally on both dough halves and roll up into a strudel. Put the two rolls, together with paper (they are very soft), onto a baking sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes at medium heat.
Recipe adapted from globetrotters.ch.