Poppy Seed Coffee Cake – Tender, Moist Yeast Bread with Poppy Seed Filling and a Sweet Lemon Glaze. Time-Tested Recipe.
My friend Kelly Jaggers is back with another wonderful family recipe! Her nostalgic memories behind this family recipe, beautifully expressed, make it taste even sweeter. ~ Tori
If you have ever traveled down Interstate 35 from Dallas to Austin you know that there is a vibrant Czech population in central Texas. Many Czech immigrants settled in the area after arriving from Europe into the Port of Houston. Leaving all they knew behind for the chance at a better life, these men and women worked hard, working on farms and ranches, and raised families. Their influence is still felt today. In the town of West, for example, kolaches are abundant and the highways are decorated with images of traditional Czech dancers.
I did not know until about 10 years ago that I was part Czech. On my mother’s side of the family Louis Kunschick arrived from Czechoslovakia in 1883. He started a farm and worked the land with his family until the end of his days. He married my great-great-grandmother, Minnie, who was a wonderful baker. I have been doing some work on my family history on and off for the past few years. It is fascinating to find out about the people who came before you. Sadly, I have not found anything about Minnie’s biological family. According to family lore she was orphaned at a young age and was adopted by a family from her church. Sadly, the details of her early life are a little vague, but we do know that she married Louis and raised a family of her own. We also know she was an amazing baker! Many of her recipes are among my most treasured.
Like most Czech families in Texas, we have an old world recipe for a poppy seed filling that can be used in a variety of breads and cakes. Minnie’s poppy seed filling is a favorite in my family. She loved to bake, and she passed that love down to her daughter, my great-grandmother Rosa, who passed it to her girls, my grandmother Lola and great-aunt Ruby, who passed it to my mom, who passed it to me. Talk about multi-generational!
Minnie passed away long before I was born, but many of her recipes are staples of my recipe box. One of my families’ favorites is her Czech strudel filled with poppy seeds. In Czech it is called makový závin, and it is delicate yeast bread that is rolled thin and coated with a sweet poppy seed filling. It is rolled up like a cinnamon roll before you slice it, and bake until golden. I like mine with a little lemon icing, but it does not really need it. While I never had the pleasure of having this hot from my great-great-grandmother’s oven, I have had it from mine, and it is splendid!
The dough for this bread is very, very soft. It is not a mistake; it is exactly what you want. It can be a little tricky to work with, so be sure you flour your work surface well, and keep some flour nearby for additional dusting. The benefit to this wet dough is tender, moist yeast bread that has an almost cake-like texture. The pleasure of eating it more than makes up for any difficulty you have working with it.
For the best possible flavor you should grind your own poppy seeds. Grinding them fresh will capture the almost floral aroma of the seeds. Of course, poppy seed filling is our families’ favorite, but you can also use other fillings. Anything you might use to fill kolaches would work, but please give the poppy seed a try. You can also add chopped nuts to the filling if you like. Walnuts or pecans would complement the flavor of the poppy seed well.
Food Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
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Poppy Seed Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Filling Ingredients
- 1 cup ground poppy seeds
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Dough Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon dry active yeast, or 1 fresh yeast cake
- 1/2 cup water, heated to 110 degrees F
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling dough
- 1/4 cup milk, scalded
- 1/4 cup butter or shortening, melted
- 3 eggs, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Glaze Ingredients
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of kosher salt
NOTES
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the filling. In a medium saucepan over medium heat add the ground poppy seeds, sugar, and 1 ¾ cups of the milk. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
- Combine the cornstarch with the remaining milk and stir into the poppy seed mixture. Cook until very thick, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cool completely to room temperature. Filling may be made a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator.
- Next, prepare the dough. In a small bowl combine the yeast, water, and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Mix until it is combined and allow the mixture to stand until the yeast is foamy, about 10 minutes.
- In the work bowl of a stand mixer combine the yeast with the remaining sugar, flour, milk, butter, 2 eggs, and salt. Mix on low speed for 3 minutes, or until just combined, then increase the speed to medium and mix for 8 minutes, or until a smooth ball forms.
- If mixing by hand, mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon until they form a shaggy ball, then turn out onto a well floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough forms a smooth ball.
- Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel, and allow the dough to rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.
- While the dough rises prepare glaze. In a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar, milk, lemon juice, butter, vanilla, and salt until smooth. The mixture should be roughly the consistency of honey. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag, or a heavy duty plastic bag, and set aside at room temperature.
- Prepare a baking sheet with baking parchment that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.Once risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide the dough in half. Roll one half of the dough out to roughly 10x12-inches.
- Spread half the prepared filling over the dough, leaving a 1 inch border along all of the edges. Fold the edges of the dough over the filling.
- Then roll the dough tightly along the short edge as you would for cinnamon rolls.
- Carefully transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and allow the bread to rise for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 350°F.
- Beat the remaining egg and use it to brush each loaf. Bake the bread for 25-28 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and firm. Let the bread cool for 20 minutes before glazing. Snip the tip of the pastry bag, or one corner of the plastic bag, and drizzle the glaze over the warm bread. Let the bread cool until it is just slightly warm before serving.
Nutrition
Thank you so much for this recipe! I can’t wait to try it, my great grandmother made poppyseed rolls I can still taste them they were so delicious and I haven’t had one since I was about 6 years old! I am hoping this recipe will be close to hers unfortunately her recipe got lost
Hello. If using a stand mixer to mix the dough would you use the dough hook or paddle attachment?
Hi Robyn– this is Kelly’s recipe, but I am guessing the paddle attachment will work just fine.
Thank you it’s going to be fantastic, when I will make it for christmass. I was looking for this kind of recipe for very long time.
Thanks. The link for grinder doesn’t work
Thank you for pointing this out. The link has been fixed. 🙂
lovely cake, reminded me of my grandmother.
I did not have a spice grinder, so the filling did not have quite the right consistency, but it still worked and tasted great.
Hi, this might be a silly question, but how long do you grand the poppy seeds? To what consistency? Thanks so much.
Your recipes are always so wonderful.
Thanks.
Marcia
Hi Marcia, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Poppy seeds can be purchased ground, or they can be ground in a spice or small coffee bean grinder. They should be ground to a powder consistency.
I made this cake which is very similar to a cake my parents used to get before Shabbat when I was a little girl living in Ramat Gan, Israel. Let me tell you, my family ate everything within hours. They said that the dough was amazing. I made it with the poppy seed filling that you have for Oznei Haman, because I was afraid that this mix might be too liquid as others have stated. I must tell you, the dought was so soft and delicious. Simply perfect!
When I was a little girl living in Ramat Gan (Israel), there was a bakery on Hertzl (street) that made cakes like this. Since, everything would close on Sabbat, my family made a tradition to go there every Friday and stock up on pastries and this particular cake which was was available by weight. I have such fond memories of those times, and I really thank you for sharing this recipe. I will attempt to make it, and I will let you know how it goes.
can you make this with the filling from the haamantashen ( mohn) i have made WAY too much
Yes it should work out great for this, as long as you have enough. 🙂
awesome! thanks…aprox how much the filling in this recipe makes? i have a huge jar, but want to know the measurements for this cake?
This is Kelly’s recipe so not sure of an exact measurement for the filling, but you should be able to eyeball it based on the photos here.
how do you store this? i just made 2, one i froze and the other were eating, how do i store the it for now ? since were still eating it> btw the filling was just enough for 2 coffee cakes!
thanks
Susanna
I’m not sure how Kelly stores it, but if it were me I would wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator to prolong the shelf life. You can always reheat individual pieces before serving.
Indeed a poppy seeds cake (“makowiec”) is our traditional Xmas cake in Poland. My mum adds some honey (replacing some sugar), nuts, raisins and candid orange peel to the poppy seeds for an extra flavor / texture.
I’ve been hunting for years for a recipe for “poppyseed squares.” I believe the same type of filling is used and has a yeastless base and topping similar to shortbread. It is possibly German , Polish or Hugarian. It was a treat from my childhood that was prchased at a German bakery in the 1960s. I would like to make this for my 86 year old Mom. Can anyone help?
I am excited to find this recipe because my Polish mom made this same bread every Christmas and would not share the recipe. People begged her to bring it to gatherings. I tried other recipes for “potika” but they weren’t quite right. Mom ground the raw poppy seeds as Judith described. Thank you so much!
Laurel,
The filling is pretty wet. It isn’t like poppy seed paste where you spread. This one thickens but isn’t thick. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. That is one of the reasons you fold the dough over the edges of the filling before rolling. If you didn’t the filling would ooze out.
Sorry if it was difficult to work with! I hope you enjoy! Feel free to reach out with any other questions. Always happy to help!
Happy baking,
Kelly
I am making this recipe right now and I could not get the poppyseed filling to thicken, so I added another cup or so of poppyseed as well as some more sugar. I simmered this new mixture for a good half hour before it thickened. Then, I checked my hamantashen recipe and discovered that it is a ratio of 2 cups of ground poppyseed to 1 cup of liquid. That filling always thickens without a problem. Do you think that there is an error in this recipe? The dough is rising beautifully and I had no problems with it, at all.
Thanks!
Julie – You can freeze the the rolls once made up but before you let them rise before baking. Just put it in the fridge the night before you plan to bake to thaw, then let rise and bake as usual the following day. Good luck and I hope you enjoy!
I can still taste my Bohemian grandmother’s poppy seed filling, but never found a recipe that duplicated it until now. Thanks so much! Is there a point in this recipe where I could freeze one of the rolls?
For those who do not want to go to the trouble of grinding usw, the is a canned poppy mix, made up and it is like a paste.
I am Hungarian and my mom had a special poppyseed grinder that she would set up in the kitchen to grind the poppyseed for our Chistmas Bagli. We also make one with ground walnuts. My mom never cooked her poppy seeds in milk, she just ground them, mixed tem with sugar and spread them on the dough, she then would grate an apple over it, add some lemon rind , sprinkle a little white wine or rum over it and sometimes sprinkle it with soaked raisins. Wow! Delicious . I follow her tradition and make these for my family at Christmas.
Wow! thanks for sharing this bit of your family tradition, its lovely and must taste like heaven! on my make list
I grew up eating this from a German grandma. What is “ground” poppyseeds? Do they come this way or do you buy ps and grind them in a grinder of some sort. Thank you
Hi Lexy– ground simply means grinding the poppyseeds in a coffee grinder prior to using them. It helps with texture and flavor. Enjoy!