Christmas poppy seed roll (a very boozy one)

It’s happened. I can finally tell you why I’ve been a bit quiet lately. I was writing a book. Yes, especially for you. A cookbook. Well, it’s a book, but in electronic form. An e-book, in other words. Completely free. It contains the most popular recipes from the site (so you can see what my readers are going for these days. I have to admit some of your choices surprised me).

But what’s the best bit? Did you see the picture of the brownies on the Facebook fan page? That recipe isn’t on the site, but it is in the free e-book. So are a few other recipes I’ve never published before. Including the one for this excellent (in my very humble opinion) and exceedingly boozy poppy seed roll.

Anything else? Guest recipes, ones I didn’t write myself. A bread recipe, for instance. Don’t believe me? I couldn’t believe it either. A bread recipe on Prymitywna Kuchnia 🙂

Most importantly, you can download the free e-book by clicking on the title (can you guess what it’s called?), “A Primitive Book About Cooking, with Recipes, Part 1”. Yes, part one, because if you like it, I’ll make a second one.

Recipe at a glance:

Prep time: 20 minutes

Rising time: 55 minutes

Baking time: 55 minutes

Serves: 12

How many calories? This isn’t just high in calories, it’s off the charts 🙂

Ingredients for the rum and poppy seed roll:

• 250 grams of wheat flour
• 100 grams of butter
• a packet of instant yeast
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons of 18% sour cream
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• a pinch of salt

 For the poppy seed filling:

• shop-bought ground poppy seed filling in a tin (900 grams, of which I used about 700 grams)
• 100 ml of rum
• 2 eggs
• a handful of ground almonds
• a handful of raisins
• a few dried apricots

Recipe ():

Despite appearances, this isn’t a difficult bake. The dough is very easy to knead, too. I also took a shortcut with the poppy seeds, but only because I don’t own a grinder. So getting the poppy seeds ready is a breeze.

I tipped the poppy seed filling into a bowl (they sell it in 900-gram tins. I used about 700 because no more would fit), poured in a hundred millilitres of rum and mixed it in thoroughly. Then I got the dried fruit ready. That meant scalding the raisins and the finely chopped apricots with boiling water. I scalded a whole orange first, then grated the zest off half of it. I added the fruit and zest to the poppy seeds and threw in a handful of grated almonds. Another stir. In went two egg yolks. I whipped the whites to a foam with my blender, added them to the poppy seed filling and gave it a stir. The filling’s ready and waiting its turn…

As I said, this recipe is here to introduce my FREE recipe e-book, “A Primitive Book About Cooking, with Recipes, Part 1”. If you’d like the whole recipe, download the e-book completely free.