Polish Poppy Seed Cake - Delicious Makowiec

Poppy seeds symbolize abundance in Polish culture. Bring abundance into your home this Christmas!

Ingredients

Ingredients for the dough:
0.5 kg of all-purpose flour
220 g of sugar
100 g of margarine or butter
1 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar or vanilla flavor oil
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg

Ingredients for the poppy seed filling:
0.5 kg of ground poppy seeds
0.5 l of milk
300 g of sugar
60 g of margarine or butter
2 egg whites
almond and vanilla flavor oil (few drops)
candied orange peel (as much as you like) or any other candied fruit 
pinch of salt

Ingredients for the crumble:
150 g of all-purpose flour
100 g of sugar
100 g butter

Directions

Step 1

Preparation of the dough:
Knead all the ingredients together and pat them into a rectangular form (approximately 25x35 cm - it can be larger, but the cake will be thinner).

Step 2

Preparation of the poppy seed mass:
Boil the milk and pour it over the poppy seeds, wait until it cools down, and drain the poppy seeds from the milk. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Add sugar, melted butter, oils, and the candied orange peel to the cooled poppy seeds and mix. Gently combine with egg white foam.

Step 3

Preparation of the crumble:
Sift the flour through a sieve. Rub the flour, sugar, and chopped cold butter together with your hands. The dough should have the consistency of wet sand so it is easy to form small crumble lumps.

Step 4

Connecting everything:
Transfer the poppy seed mixture onto the dough in the form, smooth it out, and sprinkle with the crumble topping. Bake at 160/170 degrees Celsius for 40-50 minutes. After cooling, you can drizzle with icing.