Poppy Seeds Sweet Rolls
Poppy seeds sweet rolls that will make you love poppy seeds even if you’re not a fan (hopefully so!). I think that as young kids, we’d be staring at a wonderful pastry thinking it was filled with chocolate, and once disappointment hit, we were avoiding poppy seeds filled anything every since.
Over the years, the poppy seeds flavors in desserts grew on me, in particular in yeasted dough pastries. As I adore the flavor combination of poppy seeds and lemon, I suggest to ice these pastries with some lemon glaze, which elevates them to another level, and I do not recommend skipping it.
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Poppy Seeds Sweet Rolls:
Equipment: This recipe is adjusted for baking in a rectangular baking dish sized 22 (w) x 33 (l) cm, however, you can adjust the size of pastries in accordance with the baking pan you have at home, and per your personal preferences.
Recipe:
Dough:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Bread Flour | 325g |
| Cake Flour | 85g |
| Milk | 165g |
| Eggs | 50g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 50g |
| Salt | 8g |
| Dry Yeasts | 8g |
| Cold Unsalted Butter, cubed | 80g |
Poppy Seeds Filling:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Freshly Ground Poppy Seeds (Fresh only!) | 130g |
| Milk | 30g |
| Cinnamon | 1/4 or 1/2 tsp (to taste) |
| Raisins | 30g |
| Unsalted Butter | 30g |
| Dark Rum | 12g (2 tbsps) |
| Ground Cookies | 65g |
| Lemon Zest | Zest of half or whole lemon (to taste) |
| Salt | 1/8 tsp |
| Vanilla Sugar | 10g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 65g |
Simple Syrup:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Boiling Water | 90g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 80g |
* Mix together and set to the side to cool down completely before using.
Lemon Glaze:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Powdered Sugar | 110g |
| Lemon Juice | 20g |
* Mix together when about to use
Preparation instructions:
For the Dough:
- Into a standing mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, add all of the dough’s ingredients, except for the butter cubes. Mix on low speed for a few minutes until a lump of dough is formed.
- Add the butter gradually, a few cubes at a time, waiting until the first cubes are incorporated before adding the next ones. After all the butter is added, continue kneading for 10 minutes on low-medium speed, until the dough pulls away cleanly from the bowl.
- Using a half-rounded cake card or a silicone spatula, collect the dough from the bowl and transfer it onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Roughly shape the dough to a rectangle, wrap the dough and refrigerate it overnight (4-6 hours at minimum, refrigerated).
For the caramel:
- In a small saucepan, cook together the milk, butter, sugar and vanilla sugar, salt, cinnamon, lemon zest and raisins, over medium heat, until the butter and sugar have fully dissolved and the mixture is boiling.
- Add in the poppy seeds and mix thoroughly over low heat for 1 minute.
- Turn off the heat, add in the ground cookies and rum, mix well to combine and set to the side until the mixture cools down to room temperature and is at a spreadable consistency.
Assembly and baking:
- Roll the dough to a large rectangle sized 48cm (l) x 34cm (w).
- Evenly spread the entire amount of poppy seeds filling on the dough.
- Make cutting marks 4cm apart and divide to 12 strips of dough using a pizza cutter.
- Roll each strip (12 pastries in total) and evenly space them apart inside the prepared baking pan.
- Add moisture with a water spray bottle, cover the pan with a large piece of plastic wrap and proof for 1 hour at warm room temperature.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven, set to 180C, fan mode off, placing a baking rack at the lowest level inside the oven, for 35 minutes, until the pastries have a browned (you may loosely cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil if the pastries are browning too quickly after 15 minutes into baking).
- Pour the cold simple syrup on the pastries as soon as they’re out of the oven, and allow them to cool down to room temperature.
- Spread about 1 tsp of the lemon glaze on each pastry, and let it set for a few minutes before serving.
