16 big rolls (about 8cm in diameter)
24 small rolls (about 5cm in diameter)
This weekend we got a ton of snow. Not unusual for February in Germany but the storm that came with the snow made some really impresive snowdrifts. So, what do you do if you’re snowed in on a sunday? You guessed right, bake some treats that you usually pass off as beeing too time consuming to make. I have been craving sweet poppy seed rolls all week, so today I finally made some!
The filling of these rolls is a variation of my grandmas famous one. In my familiy there is nothing better than my grandmas poppy seed cake. This vegan version of the filling is just perfect for these rolls.
Bene and I enjoyed our vegan poppy seed rolls in front of the fire place. With a hot cup of anise-roiboos tea and his favourite record: Rescue & Restore By August Burns Red. Ther’s just no way it could get any more cozy.
What do you like to do in snowy weather?
Ingredients
Dough
- 500g flour
- 35g sugar
- 10g vanilla sugar
- 20g fresh yeast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 250ml handwarm water
- 70ml neutral oil ( we use sunflower oil)
Filling
- 100g chopped almonds
- 150g ground poppy seeds
- 50g farina
- 250ml water (luke warm)
- 1 tablespoon starch
- 80g sugar
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
- 50g raisins
Icing
- 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 100g powdered sugar
Tips
If you have some time before these sweet little treats need to be ready, you can let the dough rise in the fridge for aprox. 5 hours. Rolling the dough is way easier after that.
Don’t roll out too much dough at once. It has a tendency to stick to the surface and rip once you try to roll it up.
Be careful not to let the yeast come in contact with the oil or the salt because it can affect how well the dough rises.
Even though the filling is the best part, don’t put too much on the dough or it will spill out as soon as you start to form the rolls.
Preparation
Dough
- start by measuring and mixing all the dry ingredients for the dough first.
- Make a dent in the middle of the dough where you can add the yeast.
- Pour the oil in close to the side of the bowl, so it doesn’t mix with the yeast.
- Then add the warm water. I always start by pouring some water into the dent and dissolving the yeast, so it’s easier to spread the yeast evenly.
- Knead the dough until it’s smooth and starts to come off of the bowl completely. The dough is perfect when it starts to form into a round shape nearly on its own.
- Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature. (or in the fridge see tips) It should definetly double in size.
While your dough is doing all the work on its own you can prepare the filling.
- Start by cooking the ground poppy seeds, chopped almonds, sugar and farina for about 10 minutes. Most of the water should be soaked up. (Keep stirring, since the mixture tends to get burned as soon as most of the water is gone).
- Now you can add in the raisins, oil and starch. Just let it sit for another 10-15 minutes.
Before you start to form the rolls you can preheat your oven to 180 °C.
To make the rolls you can choose between to different ways: One method is pretty fast and you get a few more but smaller rolls. The other ones requires a bit more patience. Either way you need a big enough surface with a bit of flour to roll out the dough.
Fast Method
Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Roll them out to about 15 x 20 cm and spread the filling on each piece. Roll up the dough, starting at the longer side and cut it into pieces (roughly as wide as your thumb). Use a sharp knife for this or the dough is likely to rip. Put the rolls onto a backing sheet with backing paper and bake for around 15 minutes at 180 °C.
If you have more time
Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Form one long, small roll out of each of the pieces (about 30 cm long) and roll it out flat. It shouldn’t be wider than 2 cm after you rolled it out. Spread 2 tablespoons of filling on the strip pf dough and roll it up. Preparing the rolls this way takes a bit longer but the result is very pretty. These slightly bigger rolls take a bit longe to bake (30 minutes) at 180 °C.
After the rolls have cooled down completely you can add icing or just dust them with some powdered sugar.
We hope you like them!
Mirja and Bene
