Traditional Christmas cake: Makowiec recipe
Recipe for traditional Christmas tasty and easy Makowiec (poppy seed cake)
Only two days till Christmas Eve, and I was asked by my family to bake something. I decided to bake a cake called Makowiec, which is a kind of sweet layered roll prepared with ground poppy seeds, dried fruits and sugar, sometimes even honey. Makowiec is treated as a typical Christmas cake, but also many people bake one at Easter as well.
According to many folk legends, eating poppies during Christmas was supposed to provide happiness and protect against evil forces. What's more, the poppy was believed to be a symbol of abundance and fertility.
This is a recipe which I used to prepare with my mama as a little kid, usually helped with grinding poppy seeds, because sometimes canned ground poppy seeds weren't available in big enough quantities. You'll get two poppy seeds cakes from this recipe.
MAKOWIEC RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS:
Flour (1kg)
Yeast (80g)
Milk (1/2 litre)
Poppy seeds mass 850g (I used ready canned ground poppy seeds with dried fruits)
Eggs (3) – one egg to brush before baking
Sugar(250g) or less, if you don't like too sweet cakes
Optionally: A bit of orange/lemon zest and one teaspoon of vanilla/almond essence
METHOD:
1. To a large bowl, add flour, sugar, yeast, two eggs, eventually orange/lemon zest, vanilla or almond zest and warm milk. Mix everything properly and knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. If dough is sticky, add some flour. 👇
2. Cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and put it in a warm place. Leave it for 45 minutes 👇
3. After that time, knead dough one more time for about 2 minutes. Divide dough into two parts. Take first part, roll it, put half of the canned ground poppy seed, spread mass by spoon and roll it. Put it to the mould and brush with an egg. Do the same with second part of the dough.
Bake in 180°C for 30-35 minutes. I baked them separately.
Makowiec after baking
After baking, let them cool a little bit, meanwhile you can prepare your favourite glaze and decorate. I used ready milk chocolate glaze and also some sprinkles and crushed cashews to decorate. You also may use apricots, raisins or cranberries to decorations.
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Comments (19)
Nope I have never heard of it. I would definitely be willing to try it, without chocolate of course. 😀
Yes I know that you would eat that without chocolate 😀. If not chocolate glaze you can use icing instead of it :D
Yes I will take the icing option. That would be wonderful.
Looks good and sounds interesting
Thank you Jane, it's kinda nice cake
Wow, it looks delicious! I've never seen canned poppy seeds. I've tried poppy seed strudel, it is really good. Your cake looks better though 🥺🥺
Thank you Fulana very much. We usually buy it in local supermarket, maybe you will find one soon ☺️
I'll check 😋
I've never had it but it sounds delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
You're welcome Zahra 🙂
Never heard of such a thing, but I’m intrigued by that. I’ll have to cook one up, thanks for sharing the recipe
Happy to hear that, hope you will like it 😉