Flavorful poppyseed puff pastry braid: a delicious and very beautiful dessert

Not everyone likes pastries with poppy seed filling as a child. However, over time, tastes change and people begin to try dishes that they did not like before. This is how olives, liver, poppy seed pastries, and much more appear on the table.

Poppy seed pastries are a pastry that will never go out of style and will not lose its popularity. You can make it at home without spending too much time on it. All you need to do is follow the recipe of a food blogger with the nickname nata.cooking, which she shared on Instagram.

Ingredients

• flour - 300-320 gr
• milk - 125 ml
• dry yeast - 16 grams (can be replaced with 6 grams of fast-acting dry yeast)
• egg - 1 pc
• butter - 50 grams
• a pinch of salt
• sugar - 50 grams
• lemon or orange zest - ½ pc
• poppy seed filling - 300-400 g
• egg + 1 tbsp of milk for greasing the dough

Method of preparation

1. First, you need to prepare the starter. Mix yeast, warm milk, 2 tbsp of sugar and 2-3 tbsp of flour. Mix everything well, cover and leave for 10-15 minutes until a foamy cap forms.

2. Add salt, remaining sugar, egg and zest (you can leave it out). Start kneading and gradually add sifted flour. Knead for 5 minutes.

3. Add soft butter and continue kneading the dough. At first, it may seem that the dough lacks something. In fact, you just need to be patient, and in 5-10 minutes, the dough will reach the desired consistency.

4. Grease a bowl with oil and put the dough in it. Cover with wrap and put it in a warm place to let it double in size. This takes about an hour.

5. Sprinkle the work surface with flour, knead the dough and roll it out into a thin layer.

6. Grease the dough with poppy seed filling and wrap it in a roll.

7. Cut the resulting roll in half, starting from one edge 3-4 cm, and intertwine both parts of the dough together to make a braid.

8. Put the dough into a parchment-lined mold, cover, and leave for another 20-30 minutes.

9. Brush the dough with egg and milk and put it in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 degrees.