Poppy seed bundles

by | Feb 3, 2023 | Breads, buns & biscuits

These poppy seed bundles are made from a light and soft dough containing a considerable amount of cottage cheese and lard. The filling is a special mixture of ground poppy seeds, mashed potatoes and sugar syrup. The filling must be cool (preferably ice-cold) in order to prevent the dough from melting.

(Source of the recipe: Szoky’s kitchen)

Poppy seed bundles
Poppy seed bundles – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

The recipe yields 16 poppy seed bundles.

For the dough:

  • 200 g (~7 oz) cottage cheese
  • 200 g (~7 oz) flour
  • 15 g (~4 tsp) baking powder
  • 10 g (~2 1/2 tsp) vanilla sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 150 g (~5 1/4 oz) lard

For the filling:

  • 120 g (~4 1/4 oz) boiled potatoes, passed through a ricer
  • 250 ml (~1 cup) water
  • 150 g (~5 1/4 oz) sugar
  • 150 g (~5 1/4 oz) ground poppy seeds
  • 50 g (~1 3/4 oz) raisins
  • zest of a half orange
  • 20 ml (~1 1/3tbsp) rum

For the topping:

  • 1 egg
  • powdered vanilla sugar

First, prepare the filling. Place sugar and water in a saucepan, bring it to a boil and cook to make a syrup. After 3 minutes add raisins and keep on cooking for further 3-4 minutes. Once the syrup is done, stir in ground poppy seeds, mashed potatoes, orange zest and rum, and cook for 1-2 minutes until the mixture thickens a bit. Set aside and let it cool, then put it in the fridge until use. (Side note: the sugar syrup is done if you hold your hand over the saucepan and the steam makes your palm sticky.)

For the dough pass the cottage cheese through a fine sieve. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and salt, then rub in lard. Finally, add cottage cheese and knead into a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or until the filling becomes ice-cold.

Pass the cottage cheese through a sieve

Dough – photos: zserbo.com

Preheat the oven to 190°C / 374°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a floured surface roll out the dough into a thin (2-3 mm / 1/8 inch) rectangle, and cut into 16 (4×4) pieces. Put some cold filling in the middle of each piece of dough, fold in half, and seal the longer side of the bundles with a fork.

Place the bundles on the baking sheet, prick them with a fork, then brush them with beaten egg. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Feel free to dust the poppy seed bundles with powdered vanilla sugar.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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