What's your Family secret?

Secrets.

Every family has them.

This is ours.

Well, up until now.

All recipes have a way of traveling the globe, evolving in each and every stop along the way. I guess the beauty of a GREAT recipe is just how well it has travelled and how those ‘stops’ along the way have shaped it.

58 years ago my Turkish grandmother was handed a recipe from a Polish neighbor who lived across the road from her. Her name was Manya and her family used to own a catering company back in Poland, where she would serve these specialty cakes. My grandmother was lucky to be taught how to perfect this recipe; A sweet yeast dough filled with a moist honeyed poppy seed paste, then rolled to form a glorious cake recipe.

A staple in our house ever since.

Purim is coming up, a Jewish holiday where eating poppy seed filled pastries is a tradition(at least in my books) and giving out 'mishloach manot' (gifts to friends and neighbors) is customary, it’s the perfect time to be sharing with you this special family recipe.

Enjoy it. Make it yours. Pass it on.

 

Manya’s poppy seed roll

 

Ingredients for 4 loaf

cake pans, 26 cm:

 

300ml milk

5 eggs

¾ cup sugar

300g soft butter

50g fresh yeast

1 kg flour

pinch salt

 

Filling-

2 cups milk

1.5 cups sugar

½ cup honey

500g freshly ground poppy seed

60g butter

Lemon zest from 2 lemons

½ cup golden raisins

4 tbsps. Crushed cookies/bread crumbs

 

Prepare the dough a day in advance.

Using the dough hook on your stand mixer; mix the milk, eggs, sugar, yeast and flour on low speed for 3 minutes, until the dough comes together. Add the soft butter and salt and continue to mix for 2 minutes until incorporated. Increase to high speed and let the mixer work for an additional 8 minutes.

Place in a lightly floured bowl, and cover the dough with a plastic bag and a kitchen towel over night in the fridge.

For the filling- boil the milk, sugar and honey, add the poppy seed and continue to stir on low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir inside the butter, lemon zest, raisins and crumbs.

Let cool completely.

On a floured surface, remove the dough from the bowl and divide to 4 pieces.
Roll out each piece, to a 0.5cm thickness circle. Spread 5 tbsps. of the filling and roll. Place in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.
Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle poppy seed for garnish. Let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Bake for 60 minutes in a 170c pre heated oven.

 

So what is your family secret?