Poppy Seed Roll – Czech Makový závin

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)

Add a teaspoon of freshly grated lemon zest if you want a more aromatic poppyseed filling. In old Czech cookbooks, cloves ground in a mortar were often included in the poppy seed filling.

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.

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 poppyseeds already ground. If you purchase whole poppyseeds, 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.

More poppyseed recipes:

• Škubánky s mákem – a Czech sweet treat
• Noodles with poppyseeds – nudle s mákem
• Puff pastry with poppyseed filling – kohoutí hřebeny