Flódni / Apple, poppy seed and walnut pastry

Baked goods are quite popular in Hungary if it contains walnut, poppy seed or apple, never mind if all three are on the ingredient list. The other good thing about this pastry that you first have to assemble it and then bake it, so although it has 4 layers it doesn't require to bake 4 separate layers. The recipe also stated that you have to put in 300 ml white wine, but you can't really taste it in the end- I think it is more for the texture, consistency than for the taste.

Flódni / Apple, poppy seed and walnut pastry

 

For the pasty:

500 g plain flour

250 g butter on room temperature

100 g icing sugar

3 egg yolk

100 ml white wine

 

For the apple filling

800g sharp apple

2 tbsp honey

lemon to taste (approx. 1/2 - 1 lemon)

cinnamon and ground cloves to taste

 

For the poppy seed filling

200 g ground poppy seed

100 g sugar

50 g sultana / currant

100 ml white wine

 

For the walnut filling

120 g ground walnut

80 g chopped walnut

100 g sugar

50 g sultana / currant

100 ml white wine

 

egg wash

 

 

Preheat the oven to 170C and line a 19X25cm rectangle pan - leave the baking paper longer on the sides, so after baking you can lift out the pastry.

 

Rub the butter into the flour, add in the eggs, sugar and white wine. Form a dough then wrap it in cling film and rest it in the fridge until you prepare the fillings.

 

Peel  and core the apples then grate them. Add in the honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and cloves to taste.

 

Mix the grated poppy seed with the sugar and sultanas. Heat 100ml white wine to boiling point and pour it on top the poppy seed mix.

 

Mix the grated walnut with the chopped walnut sugar and sultanas. Heat 100ml white wine to boiling point and pour it on top the walnut mix.

 

Divide the pastry to 4 equal parts and on a floured surface and roll out  to the size of the pan. Put one pasty layer it into the tin and top it with the poppy seed filling.

 

Level the poppy seed filling and top it with another pastry layer, then walnut filling, pastry, apple filling and finish it off with a pastry layer. Prick the top of the pastry with a fork and brush it with egg wash.

 

 

Bake it in the oven for 60-70 minutes or until it has a nice golden colour.

When it is completely cooled, lift out from the pan (or if you manage to rip off all the baking sheet like me, just put a chopping board on top- turn it up side down, than another board on it and flip it back. It is quite a sturdy bake so it will keep its shape).

 

Slice it and serve it with icing sugar and a whole walnut piece for decoration if you like.



Poppy Seed Cake With Sour Cherry Fillig

This is my first sweet cake in my 12 Slice Cake mould. I have to say baking sweet cake is more difficult than the savoury one, but it is only the case of practise. The cake was requested again by my poppy seed "addicted" husband. In the end he even persuaded me to serve the cake with poppy seeded sauce.

Poppy Seed Cake with Sour Cherry Filling

 For the sponge
210 g self-raising flour
210 g butter at room temperature
200 g golden caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
50 g poppy seed
1/2 lemon zest

For the filling
fresh or bottled sour cherries
200 g summer fruit sauce, or pie filling or jam+red jelly  (whatever you have at home)

For the decoration
150 g double cream
Kirsch 
a small strip of chocolate transfer sheet
20-30 g white chocolate

First I prepared the chocolate decoration.

Lay down an approx 6 cm wide chocolate transfer sheet, with the textured side up. Spread the melted chocolate with an offset spatula knife evenly on the transfer sheet. Put the transfer sheet with the board underneath to the freezer to harden up.

Heat the oven to 180C and spray the Zila tin with a vegetable oil based separating agent

Put all the cake ingredients except the poppy seed in a  large bowl. Beat them together with an electric mixer until you have a creamy mixture, then fold in the poppy seed.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when pressed. Always check the middle of the cake as with Zila mould that is the most important thing. If you think it is ready and you turn it up side down, but the middle is sill a bit underdone just put it back to the oven without the silicone part(the cavities upside).

If the bottom of the cake is not flat, just level it so the cake will stand straight when you turn it up side down- just use the stainless steel ring as your guide. Pour some sauce to the cavities and fill the rest of the space with sour cherries. Pour the remaining of the sauce on top of the sour cherries.

To decorate, whip the double cream with some Kirsch (amount depending on your taste, but 2-3 tbsp should be enough) to soft peaks and pipe it around the cake. Take out the chocolate from the freezer, cut out triangles and insert 12, 1 in each part.

Lemon, Almond and Poppy Seed Cake

 In the meantime of waiting for my new delivery from Lakeland:) I made myself useful:) I baked something that my husband loves the most: poppy seeded ....well anything that contains poppy seed. I used Peggy Porschen's new book I bought last week and the result was delicious.

Lemon, Almond and Poppy Seed Cake

For the sponge

200 g unsalted butter, softened

200 g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

200 g self-raising flour

100 g ground almond

30 g ground poppy seed (plus I put in 10g as a whole as well)

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

For the lemon syrup

100 ml -the juice of two lemons

100 g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 175C and prepare the bundt cake tin.

For the sponge:Place the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and cream until pale and fluffy.

Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and slowly add the butter mixture while whisking quickly. If the mixture starts to separate or curdle, stop adding the egg and beat in 2-3 tablespoons of the flour. This will rebind the batter. Once all the egg has been added and combined with the butter mixture, shift in the flour and add the ground almonds and poppy seeds. Stir until the batter is just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, using a rubber spatula to help fill the tin. Before baking,  tap the filled cake tin on your work surface a few times to make sure the batter has reached all the cavities at the bottom of the tin.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.The sponge is cooked when the sides are beginning to shrink away from the edges of the tin and the top is golden brown and springs back to the touch. 

While the sponge is baking, prepare a lemon syrup for soaking. Place the lemon juice and caster sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the sugar crystals have dissolved. Set aside to cool down slightly.

Once the sponge is baked, immediately brush the sponge with half the lemon syrup: this allows the syrup to be absorbed faster.

Allow to cool for about 30 minutes outside of the oven. Once just warm, turn the cake out of the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire cooling rack. Brush the other side of the sponge with the remaining syrup.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.