How to cook Christmas Star, a beautiful and flavorful pie that can be prepared with a variety of fillings

Christmas Star is a flavorful and beautiful Christmas pastry that can be made with a variety of fillings. It will decorate every festive table as it does not require any special skills.

The most popular filling for this type of pastry is poppy seeds, but you can use anything you like. Food expert Svitlana Levytska shared how to make the Christmas Star on Instagram.

Ingredients for the dough

• flour - 640 g
• milk - 250 ml
• egg yolks - 6 pcs
• dry yeast - 7 g
• soft butter - 100 g
• sugar - 100 g
• salt - a pinch

Ingredients for the filling

• poppy seeds - 250 g
• small raisins - 50 g
• ground nuts - 25 g
• orange zest - 1 pc
• sugar - 100 g
• honey - 2 tbsp
• whites - 2 pcs

Method of preparation

1. Prepare the dough. Add a teaspoon of flour and sugar to 100 ml room temperature milk.

2. Add yeast, mix and leave until a foamy cap forms (about 10 minutes).

3. Beat the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar.

4. Add the starter to the flour and the rest of the dough ingredients and knead until the dough is smooth, soft, and easy to handle.

5. Leave to rise for 2 hours.

6. Prepare the filling. Pour boiling water over the poppy seeds, stir, and drain the first water.

7. Pour boiling water again and leave to cool.

8. Drain all the liquid from the poppy seeds and grind them in a mortar in small portions until poppy milk is released.

9. When the poppy seeds turn white, add sugar and grind until the sugar dissolves.

10. Whip the egg whites, add the rest of the ingredients for the filling and the whipped egg whites and mix.

11. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll out a round cake from each part.

12. Divide the filling into 2 parts.

13. Spread the first part of the filling on the first cake, cover with the second cake, add the second part of the filling, and top everything with the third part of the dough.

14. Place a glass in the center and cut the pie into 16 equal "petals". Turn each of them around its axis.

15. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Brush with egg or milk.

16. Bake at 160 degrees for 50 minutes.