Poppy Seed Bread
Hashasli Corek/Ekmek
I didn’t know that poppy seeds are edible before coming to Eskisehir, the city where I’m living now. There are many pastry shops here and they have various breads that I didn’t see in my hometown. One of these unique breads is bread with mashed poppy seeds. As you can guess, it didn’t last long for me to become a big fan of this fantastic bread. We often buy it from a pastry shop nearby in the early morning when it’s still warm and we have the pleasure of eating this bread at breakfast with some cheese, sliced tomato and cucumber accompanied by newly brewed black tea.
It wasn’t enough for me just to eat the bread with this special ingredient, it was a must for me to learn more about it. Hubby said poppy seeds are commonly used in his hometown, and his mom knows a lot about it. And when I asked my mother-in-law (Mom II) about poppy seeds, she took me to her childhood with her lively descriptions, it was so exciting for me to be in a different time and learning about some past piece of life.
She said that she spent most of her childhood in huge poppy fields full of purple, red and white flowers and she explained how much she admired these lovely poppy flowers spreading as far as the eye can reach. She seemed as if she was really there while she was describing those fields, it was so clear from the light in her eyes. I think those times might be the root of her love of drawing and painting. I didn’t even know that poppies are lovely flowers. She explained that poppy flowers are just like wild beautiful flowers we see on mountains in Spring. Unlike these flowers, poppies are grown and processed by people. Poppy seeds are planted in fields and after some time, they come out of earth as fresh herbs. Mom II said that they would make salad from these herbs when they were still fresh. Growing older, these herbs become harder and bitter. They grow as high as an average human height and then they start to bloom in various colors and generate their fascinating masterpiece in fields. These flowers drop their petals after a certain time and form cones containing poppy seeds. Mom II told me that it was a big pleasure for her to break these cones, shake it down into her palm and throw the seeds into her mouth. It sounds great, doesn’t it?
These poppy seeds are used in pastry decoration and when they are mashed they turn into another amazing flavor. These are in three colors: black, yellow and white. Yellow and white mashed poppy seeds are used in pastries. As these are light in color, they don’t spoil the color of dough (you see in my bread above). Also, the rate of oil they include is not so high, which is better for pastries. As for the black mashed poppy seeds, it is mixed with grape molasses just like tahini and becomes a perfect food for breakfast especially in Winter.
Mom II also stated that it was a tradition in her childhood that to serve different kinds of breads with mashed poppy seeds during festivals like Ramadan or Greater Eid. When children knocked the door, the host was supposed to give some slices of poppy seed bread to them. It was one of the ways to make children happy on these special days besides candies and handkerchieves.
I learnt this yummy poppy seed bread from mom II. Unlike the ones in pastry shops here, this one has raisins or currants in its filling mixture, which makes it more special. So here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 ½ tbsp instant yeast
- 1 cup milk(warm)
- 3 cups flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Filling mixture*:
-Â Â Â 1 cup yellow mashed poppy seed
-Â Â Â 1 cup olive oil
-   ½ cup raisin/currants
Mix all the ingredients for dough, knead it and wait it for 1 hour to rise. It shouldn’t be sticky, if it’s still sticky, then add a little more flour.
Preheat the oven at 180C.
Then knead it once more. Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and roll it out in a rectangle like shape.
Mix mashed poppy seeds and olive oil very well, it mustn’t be thick, must be like a flowing mixture. Spread this on the dough and then throw the raisins/currants on it.
Then roll the dough tightly.
Cut the dough roll into two with a sharp knife.
Turn their insides with filling mixture upside.
Put one half on the middle of the other half and give them a shape of hook.
Plait each pieces until the end.
Oil a circle oven tray and place the bread dough gently in a circular shape. Combine the two ends of the dough and stick them together by pressing gently with your fingers.
Bake it for 35 minutes and serve it with black tea or coffee.
*If you can’t find mashed poppy seeds, here is an alternative recipe for its filling:
-Â Â Â Âľ cup poppy seeds
-Â Â Â Âľ cup raisin/currants
-Â Â Â 1 cup milk
-Â Â Â 2 tbsp corn strach
-Â Â Â 1 egg yolk
-Â Â Â 2 tbsp butter
Put the poppy seeds, raisin and half of the milk in a pot. Boil it over the lowest heat until the seeds and raisin rise and there is no milk left. It takes for about 10 min. Meanwhile, whisk corn starch, yolk and the other half of milk in a bowl. At the end of the cooking time of poppy seeds and raisins, add the yolk mixture into the pot and boil stirring until it gets thick enough. Take it from fire and finally add butter and stir well. Spread this mixture on the dough you roll and bake it in the same way.
If you want more juice from a lemon, pierce it once with a fork and then squeeze.
The Little Teochew on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 12:03 am
Zerrin, it is beautiful. The swirls, the colour … just beautiful.
Ju
Sophie on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 2:31 am
waw,…Zerrin!! One georgous dessert or a decadent breakfast!!!!
MMMMMMMMMM,….Just a feast for the eyes & mouth!!!
lk on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 7:07 am
what a gorgeous bread!! looks quite yummy too – I don’t eat poppy seeds very often, but I do like them a lot
elra on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 8:57 am
Picture perfect Zerrin. Love it when you show us how to. Thank you!
Jessie on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 11:58 am
beautiful bread! I just love that first photo
Gera @ SweetsFoods on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 1:01 pm
Exquisite form on this bread and the filling is outstanding Kudos for you Zerrin!!
Cheers,
Gera
Faith on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 5:40 pm
What a lovely bread! Eid Mubarak, Zerrin!
Trissa on Fri, 27th Nov 2009 7:51 pm
Zerrin – your bread looks amazing – i love the shot where it looks like a landscape – it is so out of this world! hehe… thanks for sharing your recipe – I would have never known about this bread if not reading it here.
Erica on Sat, 28th Nov 2009 6:15 am
The finish product is beautiful!Delicious recipe,Zerrin!
OysterCulture on Sat, 28th Nov 2009 7:45 pm
I love your MIL’s name – Mom II – how fun and exactly how I feel about mine. This bread looks and sounds amazing and as usual, I learned so much from reading your posts – I was not aware there were 3 types of poppy seeds, I’m not sure if I’ve seen the yellow ones here.
Divina on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 7:17 am
That is an interesting bread. Now, I know more about poppy seeds and they’re just fascinating.
Malar Gandhi on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 7:36 am
Whooo, looks like lot of work, but worth doing, right. Poppy seeds will make sleep peacefully…lovely dessert.
zerrin on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 8:54 am
The Little Teochew- Thank you. The swirls look so cute, don’t they?
Sophie- Thank you. In fact, this is not a usual dessert as it’s not so sweet. It’s more like a savory pastry.
lk- Hope you have mashed poppy seeds there. They go very well in such pastries.
Elra- I thought I must show these steps, otherwise, it would be difficult to describe how.
Jessie- Thank you
Gera- I feel so lucky that I learnt the filling mixture of mashed poopy seeds from mom II. Now we can make this bread at home.
Faith- Wish you happy eid to you and your family.
Trissa- Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. That landscape-like photo is my favorite, too.
Erica- Thank you:)
Oyster- So we’re so lucky to have second moms. I wasn’t aware of these colorful poppy seeds until momII told so. She said I must use the yellow one to make a filling mixture of pastry.
Divina- Interesting and lovely, isn’t it? Definitely perfect with a cup of tea.
Malar Gandhi- It’s absolutely worth doing all these steps. I didn’t know that poppy seeds make us sleep. Actually, this bread is not sweet enough to be considered as a dessert. It’s closer to a savory pastry.
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 6:06 pm
This sounds incredible and what a gorgeous braid! It reminds me of a poppy seed dessert my grandmother used to make, I really need to try to replicate that!
Mely on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 12:45 pm
Wow! This is an outstanding post, I love the how to pictures, the Mom II story (how lovely!) and that cute rolling pin, you have to send me one of those!! For my flour tortillas.
I had been looking for something like that.
But above all the bread, great looking and must be so tasty as well.
As always thank you for the introduction to these yellow poppy seeds and for the alternative recipe.
You rock girl!
feride aka farida on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 4:18 pm
Zerrin, hashasli ekmek looks so delicious! My mother-in-low makes it too:) When she came here, she asked if we could find mashed poppy seeds for her so she could make this bread for us, but we couldn’t find any:( and she couldn’t bake. I didn’t know how to make the filling myself, thank you so much for sharing the recipe. Will try to make my own mashed poppy seeds and maybe will surprise my MIL when she visits again:)
lisaiscooking on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 6:23 am
That’s a beautiful braided bread! It sounds delicious with the raisins.
Daily Spud on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 1:02 pm
Wow, what beautiful bread. I’ve only ever come across black poppy seeds – though, from reading your post, it seems that there’s a whole lot more to know about them than I had realised. Thanks for the lesson!
rowena on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 2:13 am
This is truly stunning Zerrin, great job! It’s also the first time that I’ve heard of yellow poppy seeds…I thought there was only one color – black! Will have to see if I can find it at the ethnic food shop.
Margot on Wed, 9th Dec 2009 1:30 pm
That is amazing!! In Poland we eat a lot of poppy seed cakes… but the seeds are hiding inside… rolled. Your bread is really impressive. Must try to do something like this with my poppy seed cake