Czech Poppyseed Cake Food

CZECH KOLACHE RECIPE

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, heat the milk until lukewarm. Pour the dry yeast and a teaspoon of sugar into the milk. The sugar will encourage the yeast to activate. Stir everything with a spoon and leave it in a warm place for about 10-15 minutes until foam forms on the surface.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter, which should be semi-liquid but not hot. Around 30 seconds in a microwave are ideal.
• Add the flour, sugar, salt into a mixing bowl. Add an egg, vanilla, melted butter, and activated yeast with milk.
• Begin with the dough. Roughly combine all ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Turn the mixture out onto a floured work surface and use your hands to work it into a smooth elastic dough. If the dough is too sticky, dust it with a tablespoon of flour and continue kneading. Repeat until the dough is no longer sticky.
• Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place for 40 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into equal parts. If you have a kitchen scale and want kolache the same size, weigh each piece on the scale. The weight of a piece of dough for one pie is around 1 and ½ oz (45 g).
• Shape each piece of dough into a ball. Place it on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Leave enough space between the balls so that the cakes don't touch and bake into a square later. The classic Czech kolach is round!
• Let the dough balls rise in a warm place for another 40 minutes. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel if you leave the dough to rise on the kitchen counter.
• Time to shape kolache! We need to create a beautiful round kolach and create a depression in the center for the filling placement. Take a round-bottomed vessel about 3 inches in diameter, such a glass. I used a ½ measuring cup. Wrap the bottom with a clean dish towel so that there are no creases. Press the wrapped vessel evenly into the dough with light pressure from above. The kolach is stretched out wide and round, and an indentation is made in the middle for the filling.
• In a shallow bowl, beat an egg using a fork and create an egg wash. Brush it over the edges of the kolache pastries.
• Now, place the filling in the middle of each kolach. Just about 1 to 1.½ tablespoons per kolach are enough. If you like, sprinkle the cakes with streusel topping.
• Let's bake kolache! Preheat the oven to 340 °F (170 °C). Place the sheet with kolache in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

POPPY SEED CAKE - CZECH MAKOVEC

Steps:

• Before you start baking, grease and flour a sheet pan. Pre-heat oven to 340 °F (170 °C).
• In a large mixing bowl, crack an egg, add vegetable oil and granulated sugar. Mix with a hand-held kitchen mixer for 3 minutes.
• In a separate bowl, whisk flour, poppy seeds, and baking powder. Add them to the beaten egg. Add milk and mix everything using a mixer on low speed until a semi-liquid batter is created.
• Pour and spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 30 minutes. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the cake center. The tooth stick needs to come out clean, or with a few crumbs stuck to the tooth stick, then the cake is finished.
• Set the baked cake aside. Meantime, make a smooth lemon icing. To achieve this, mix sifted icing sugar with freshly pressed lemon juice. Drizzle the lemon icing over warm cake and spread it using a tablespoon.
• Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. Slice and serve as a dessert or a coffee cake.

LEMON POPPYSEED CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 20cm square deep cake tin (or if using a decorative tin like ours, grease well).
• In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined. Spoon into the tin and smooth over the top. Bake for 40-45 mins. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out, peel off the parchment and leave to cool on a wire rack.
• Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Beat in the lemon juice to make a runny icing. Pour over the cake and leave to set.

POPPY SEED CAKE

Steps:

• In small sauce pan cook poppy seed with honey and 1/4 cup water for 5-7 minutes.
• Cool.
• Cream butter/margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add cooled poppy seed mixture to creamed mixture, and egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Blend in sour cream and vanilla.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• Gradually add poppy seed mixture to dry mixture, beating well.
• Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.
• Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 9-inch tube (or bundt) pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Cool in pan for 5 minutes.
• Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.