These simple cookies are very popular in Israel, and come with different filling besides for poppy seed, such as chocolate or dates and walnut. Feel free to experiment with you favorite (Nutella, anyone?)
Poppy seed roll cookies
Course: Cakes and cookies, Hungarian, Israeli, PurimCuisine: Israeli, JewishDifficulty: Medium36
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minutesThese simple cookies are very popular in Israel, and come with different filling besides for poppy seed, such as chocolate or dates and walnut.
Poppy seeds are available in bulk online, and at most Eastern European and Middle Eastern supermarkets. Alternately, you can buy a few jars of poppy seeds from the spice rack at any chain supermarket.
This recipe requires you to grind the poppy seed. You can do it with either an electric coffee grinder or with a blender, preferably a powerful one, such as Vitamix. Try to grind the poppy seed close to when you’re ready to cook with it, as it becomes rancid pretty quickly, especially when grounded. If you have to grind in advance, keep it in a sealed container in the freezer until you’re ready to use.
INGREDIENTS
- For the poppy seed filling
¾ cup whole or low-fat milk
6 tablespoons sugar
3 oz. finely ground poppy seeds (see note above)
3 tablespoons ground almonds (or ground cookies)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
- For the dough
2¾ cups (14 oz.) all purpose flour
1 cup (4 oz.) powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut to cubes
1 egg
1 egg yolk
½ teaspoon kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
- Make the filling: Put milk, sugar and poppy seed in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the milk is absorbed and the mixture has thickened. Stir in the ground almond, butter, vanilla and lemon zest until well incorporated, then remove from heat. Cool completely.
- Now make the dough: Put flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and diced butter in the bowl of a food processor and mix until you get crumbs (alternatively, you can make the dough in a large bowl with your hands or with a pastry blender.) Add egg, yolk and salt and mix until you get a dough. If the mixture is too dry, you can add water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten it to a disk, and cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Have two large parchment paper pieces ready (about the size of a baking sheet.) work with a third of the dough at a time. Put dough between the two parchment papers and use a rolling pin to roll it to a 12” x 9” rectangle.
- Use an icing spatula to spread a third of the poppy seed filling all over the dough.
- Starting from the long side, roll the dough rectangle into a log and transfer into the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Transfer the baking sheet to the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
- Oven to 325 F degrees.
- Use a knife to slice the logs into 1 inch thick pieces, but do not separate them from each other.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely, for a couple of hours.
- When the rolls are completely cold, use a knife to slice the cookies all the way and separate them. Dust with powdered sugar. The cookies keep in a sealed container at room temperature up to 4 days, or longer in the fridge.
