Denise says:

This is one of those cakes that appears in most Eastern European Jewish patisseries, particularly during Purim time when nuts and seeds are so popular. Personally, I don’t need an excuse to make this poppy seed roll as it is so delicious. But remember to brush your teeth afterwards as the poppy seeds do tend to catch in your teeth and spoil your smile! Using soya milk makes no difference to the final taste, so make them all parev if you wish and they can be eaten any time.

My recipe makes 4 rolled cakes or bread loaves and although this sounds a lot, they tend to get eaten quickly and they do freeze beautifully.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes plus 2 hours rising Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 rolls

Ingredients:

1 kg strong bread flour
2 x 6g sachet dried yeast
600ml warm milk or soya milk
3 eggs
70g sugar
1 teaspoon salt
100 ml vegetable oil
100g melted margarine

Filling
400g poppy seeds
200g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk or soya milk

Variations
Try some delicious variations of fillings: 250g of mixed chopped nuts like pistachio nuts, walnuts and almonds combined with a 250g of icing sugar or 100g cocoa powder with 250g icing sugar.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil – to grease the bowl
4 tablespoons vegetable oil – to brush the dough on the base and to glaze on the top

Method

1) Dissolve the yeast with 2 tablespoons of the warm milk. Leave for 5 minutes.
2) Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, salt, oil, margarine, yeast mixture and remaining milk together. Ideally using a dough hook in a mixer knead the dough for 8 minutes until it is smooth and shiny.
3) Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand for 2 minutes and shape into a ball.
4) Leave the ball of dough in a greased bowl. Cover and leave to rise for 2 hours.
5) Knock back the dough. Divide into 4 pieces.
6) Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas mark 6.
7) On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each piece so that it is roughly a rectangle of 36 cm / 14 inch long and 23 cm / 9 inches wide and ½ cm / 1 inch thick.
8) For the poppy seed filling mix the poppy seeds with the icing sugar and milk. (The recipes makes enough for 4 rolls – I like to make 2 with poppy seed and 2 with chocolate or nuts)
9) Brush each roll surface with a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Spread on a quarter of the filling. Roll up like a Swiss roll.
10) Line 2 trays with non stick baking parchment paper. Put 2 rolls on each tray.
11) Brush the top with more vegetable oil.
12) Bake for 30 minutes.
13) Once cooked, brush the top with some more vegetable oil and dust with icing sugar.

Cut into slices and serve warm or cold.