Are you a fan of poppy seeds? If the answer is yes, then I have an excellent recipe for you! An Old Bohemian poppyseed roll that will delight everyone who tastes it.
➜ What is Czech Poppy Seed Roll?
Czech poppy seed roll is a sweet pastry made of yeast dough, filled with poppyseed filling, and swirled into a loaf shape. The baked roll is dusted with icing sugar and cut into slices. It tastes excellent with coffee or tea, at family gatherings, or just for breakfast.
This delicacy is called "makový závin" or "makový štrúdl" in the Czech Republic.
Poppy seed bread roll is very popular with our eastern neighbors in Slovakia. Slovaks call the poppy strudel "maková štrúdla".
MY TIP: Try out Czech apple strudel too (sweet pastry roll filled with apples)
Poland, which borders the Czech Republic to the north, calls the poppy seed roll "makowiec". This word can be misleading for us Czechs because a similar name makovec means a delicious poppyseed coffee cake with lemon icing in Czech.
Enough talk, let's bake!
➜ Ingredients
This recipe makes two loaves of poppyseed rolls—the exact amount of ingredients are listed below in the recipe card.
Yeast roll dough ingredients:
- All-purpose flour
- Milk; lukewarm
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter; softened at room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- Egg
- Vanilla paste; or essence
- Active dry yeast; or fresh yeast (both work well)
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
Poppyseed filling ingredients:
- Poppyseed; ground
- Milk
- Powdered sugar
- Jam; any spicier one, Czechs usually use plum jam
- Raisins
- Golden rum; for more flavor (optional)
If you want the poppyseed filling to smell better, grate a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest into it. In old Czech cookbooks, ground cloves were often included in the poppy seed filling.
Learn, how to grind cloves and other dry spices by hand.
➜ Instruction with Photos
First, prepare the poppy seed filling. This must be completely cooled before you use it to fill the roll.
Making poppyseed filling:
STEP 1: Put the ground poppy seeds in a saucepan, pour in the milk. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat to a minimum and cook for 10 minutes while stirring (photo 1).
STEP 2: Remove from the stove, stir in the sugar, jam, and raisins (photo 2+3). Transfer to a bowl, let it cool completely. Pour in the rum and stir (photo 4).
Making yeast dough:
STEP 1: Heat the milk up to be warm but not hot. Add the butter, let it melt in the milk. Add the egg and beat in the mixture with a fork.
STEP 2: Sift the flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Add the vanilla paste. Pour in the prepared mixture of milk, butter, and egg.
STEP 3: Stir in the dry yeast.
STEP 4: Work everything into a smooth dough. I use only my hands, not a kitchen mixer. I start with a fork to incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Then I dump everything on the countertop and knead the dough with my hands. Please do not underestimate the kneading itself; it takes about 5 minutes.
STEP 5: Cover the dough in the bowl with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. This takes about an hour.
⤍ Learn how to make dough rise in the oven.
STEP 6: Divide the dough into two equal parts. Lightly dust the work surface with flour. Roll out one piece of the dough roughly into a rectangle so that the longer part is no longer than the baking sheet. I baked the poppyseed roll on a 16x14 inch baking sheet and rolled out the dough to about 14x12 inches.
STEP 7: Spread the rolled-out dough with the cooled poppy seed filling, leaving an uncovered strip about 1 inch wide around the perimeter.
STEP 8: Beat one egg in a bowl and brush the edges of the dough. This step will help prevent the poppy seed filling from oozing out of the roll when baking.
STEP 9: Carefully roll up the poppyseed roll. Squeeze both ends lightly and fold them down.
STEP 10: Transfer the strudel to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
STEP 11: Prepare the second roll in the same way.
STEP 12: Bake the rolls in a preheated oven at 340°F for about 40 minutes until their surface is golden brown.
➜ Serving
Let the roll cool down, dust with icing sugar, and slice it into pieces about 1 and ½ inches wide. Poppyseed roll tastes great with coffee when meeting with family or friends.
➜ Cook's Tips
- First, prepare the poppyseed filling so that it has time to cool down. The yeast dough should always be filled with room temperature warmed stuffing; that is, not too hot or too cold, e.g., taken out of the fridge.
- In the Czech Republic, you can buy poppy seeds already ground. If you purchase whole poppy seeds, grind them quickly in a coffee grinder or food processor.
- Raisins in the poppyseed filling are optional; if you don't like them, feel free to leave them out.
⇢ You might be interested in this, too: Slovak Nut Roll (Orechovy zavin)
More poppy seed recipes:
- Škubánky s mákem – a Czech sweet treat
- Noodles with poppyseeds – nudle s mákem
- Puff pastry with poppyseed filling – kohoutí hřebeny
- Poppy seed bundt cake – Czech makova babovka
- Bobalki – Slovak Christmas bread balls
Tried this recipe?
Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Poppy Seed Roll – Czech Makový závin
Ingredients
Poppyseed filling:
- 2 ½ cup ground poppy seeds (225 g)
- 1 cup milk (240 ml)
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
- ⅓ cup raisins (50 g)
- 2 Tablespoons jam
- 2 Tablespoons spiced rum optional
Yeast dough:
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (490 g) plus some for dusting the worktop
- ¾ cup milk (180 ml) warm
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 g)
- ½ stick unsalted butter (55 g)
- ¾ Tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla essence (optional)
Instructions
Poppyseed filling:
- Put the ground poppy seeds in a saucepan, pour in the milk. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat to a minimum and cook for 10 minutes while stirring.
- Remove from the stove, stir in the sugar, jam, and raisins. Transfer to a bowl, let it cool completely. Pour in the rum and stir.
Yeast dough:
- Heat the milk to warm but not hot. Add the butter, let it melt in the milk. Add the egg and beat in the mixture with a fork.
- Sift the flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Add the vanilla paste. Pour in the prepared mixture of milk, butter, and egg.
- Stir in the dry yeast.
- Work everything into a smooth dough. I use only my hands, not a kitchen mixer. I start with a fork to incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Then I dump everything on the countertop and knead the dough with my hands. Please do not underestimate the kneading itself; it takes about 5 minutes.
- Cover the dough in the bowl with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. This takes about an hour.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts. Lightly dust the work surface with flour. Roll out one piece of the dough roughly into a rectangle so that the longer part is no longer than the baking sheet. I baked the poppyseed roll on a 16x14 inch baking sheet and rolled out the dough to about 14x12 inches.
- Spread the rolled-out dough with the cooled poppy seed filling, leaving an uncovered strip about 1 inch wide around the perimeter.
- Beat one egg in a bowl and brush the edges of the dough. This step will help prevent the poppy seed filling from oozing out of the roll when baking.
- Carefully roll up the poppyseed roll. Squeeze both ends lightly and fold them down.
- Transfer the strudel to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Prepare the second roll in the same way.
- Bake the roll in a preheated oven at 340°F (170 °C) for about 40 minutes until the surface is golden brown.
Notes
- Makes 2 poppyseed loaves.
- SERVING: Let the roll cool, dust with icing sugar, and slice it into pieces about 1 and ½ inches wide
- First, prepare the poppyseed filling so that it has time to cool. The yeast dough should always be filled with room temperature warmed stuffing; meaning: not hot or too cold, e.g., taken out of the fridge.
- In the Czech Republic, you can buy poppyseeds already ground. If you purchase whole poppyseeds, grind them quickly in a clean coffee grinder or food processor.
- I used a 14x16 inches baking pan to bake this roll.
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Peter Filip
Great job! Thank you for the delicious roll ????
Petra Kupská
You are very welcome, Peter!
Jean Luby
Hello, I am Czech and as a child this is was always my favorite treat my mom would make for us among the many Czech kolace. She also had a special grinder which unfortunately got lost over the years. Since then I have tried many ways of grinding the poppy seed none have done as good a job as the original we had. At last I found a spice grinder that worked quite well only it does it in very small amounts, sufficient for spices but 2 C of poppy seed does take some time. I also prefer honey as for it's aroma to sugar, jam will pass. I''m glad to have found your website and look forward to more Czech recipes. Love the yeast kind best of all.
Jarus
Amy
My dad talks about his Czech grandmother making a bread with ground poppy seeds and dried fruit, that he called “pachka.” (That’s how it sounds, not sure how it’s spelled.) Based on his description, it sounds pretty close to this - can’t wait to make this for him!
Petra Kupská
Thank you for your comment, Amy! I have already heard the word "pachka" or "paska" in connection with the strudel roll. I hope your dad will like this recipe.
Mary
Hi there,
Your recipe sounds great and I can't wait to try it. I'm wondering why there isn't a second rise after the loaf is rolled?
Thanks. Mary
Cindy W
Would it be sacrilegious to use Solo brand poppy seed filling with some added raisins in a cake like this? I use it in Kolachkes and often have left over that I don't know how to use. This looks delightful!
Petra Kupská
I don't live in the US, so I can't judge objectively. However, I have heard nothing but praise for Solo's poppy seed filling! I've read that it's used to fill sweet pastries and works perfectly fine. I firmly believe it would be great in this poppy seed roll recipe as well 🙂 With warm greetings from Bohemia, Petra
Katie
just made this for my friends and it was a big hit! Bookmarked for future use! I like that they aren't too sweet, really good with my morning coffee.
Petra Kupská
Thank you for your nice comment, Katie! Glad to hear you liked the poppy seed roll 🙂
Sarah
Thanks, as always, for your great recipes! Do you think I could freeze the already baked poppy seed roll? I'm thinking about making this ahead for holiday breakfast. It would be great to pull this out of the freezer, ready to go, amidst the craziness of the holidays.
Jim
My dough is not rising. I used active yeast. Did I do something wrong?
Petra Kupská
Jim, I am sorry to hear this! There may be several reasons why the dough does not rise. Have you tried making a starter beforehand, i.e., pouring the yeast into lukewarm milk with a little sugar and testing to see if the yeast starts to foam and bubble on the surface? Is the dough placed in a warm, draft-free place during rising? The more fat the dough contains, the heavier it is and the longer it takes to rise than the recipe may indicate. I believe that the dough did eventually proof, and you successfully baked the poppy seed roll.
Patsy Lisko
If I make this can I freeze one of the loaves? My grandma used to make this when I was a little girl. I would love to try it
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com
Hello Patsy, yes, you can definitely freeze one of the loaves - then simply let it defrost at room temperature. I am happy the recipe brought back memories of your grandmother. Good luck and let me know how they turn out!
Liana Bajer
Delicious! The first time I made this recipe, the dough didn’t rise. The second time, I proofed the yeast in a few tbsp of warm water. It rose. It’s sooo delicious! It tastes like the original.
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com
Hello Liana, thank you for your comment and feedback! You did a great job with fixing the rising dough. I am so happy the recipe was a success.
Amy
I was wondering, what kind of jam does one typically use? Thank you!
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com
Hi Amy, thank you for asking - you could use any spicier one like plum, strawberry, currant... Hope this helps!
Sherry Holt
Is this similar to the Slovenian recipe for “POTICA” that our grandmother used to make for the holidays?
Sherry