[VIDEO] Croatian Recipes: Makovnjača

Makovnjača

Makovnjača, or Poppy seed roll in English, is popular in Croatia.

Makovnjača is commonly eaten around Christmas and Easter time and is also popular in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Austria and Germany. There are many variations out there but here is a simply Makovnjača that you can make, and you don’t need to wait either for Christmas or Easter.

Makovnjača goes great with a glass of milk or cocoa.

Ingredients

Flour – 500 g
Yeast – 3.5 g
Egg – 1
Egg yolks – 2
Butter – 100 g
Poppy seeds – 300 g
Milk – 6 dl
Sugar – 550 g
Rum, – 1 dl
Raisins – 100 g
Lemon

Makovnjača (photo credit: Bartekbas)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl mix together the yeast, a teaspoon of sugar and flour and half a decilitre of lukewarm milk. Leave for 45 minutes.

2. In another bowl now put the rest of the flour, yeast foam mix, 1 egg, a bit of milk, grate some lemon core, sugar and mix together.

3. When the dough is ready take out, sprinkle with flour, place in another bowl, cover and let rest for 40 minutes.

4. Whilst the dough is resting prepare the filling. In a pan boil some milk, once boiling add sugar, the ground poppy seeds and the raisins which have been soaking in the rum. Mix until binds together and then take off heat.

5. On a bench sprinkled with flour roll out the dough. Add the filling onto the rolled out dough and roll it up. Place the Makovnjača into an oven dish. Paste with egg yolk before placing it in the oven.

6. Bake in the oven at 180 ºC for around 60 minutes (once the top has the desired colour cover in foil for the rest of the time).

Let cool and dobar tek!

Check out the video below: