Rogal Świętomarciński

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 250 ml whole milk
• 9 g instant yeast
• 60 g caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 60 g softened butter
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 200 g cold butter for laminating
• 250 g white poppy seeds
• 150 g caster sugar for the filling
• 60 g butter for the filling
• 80 g sponge cake or biscuit crumbs
• 60 g walnuts
• 60 g blanched almonds
• 60 g raisins
• 60 g candied orange peel
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 egg whites
• 1 egg for glazing
• 150 g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Before you cook

• Rinse the white poppy seeds in a fine sieve under cold water.
• Cover the poppy seeds with boiling water and leave them to swell for one hour.
• Warm the milk to blood temperature.
• Beat the cold laminating butter into a flat 20 cm square between two sheets of baking paper and chill it.
• Chop the walnuts and almonds roughly.

Steps

1. Whisk the yeast and a spoonful of the sugar into the warm milk and leave it for ten minutes.
2. Put the flour, the remaining sugar and the salt into a large bowl.
3. Add the yeast milk, the egg yolks and the softened butter.
4. Knead for eight minutes into a smooth, soft dough.
5. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for one hour.
6. Drain the soaked poppy seeds thoroughly through a fine sieve.
7. Grind the poppy seeds twice in a food processor until they turn pale and creamy.
8. Melt the filling butter in a saucepan over low heat.
9. Add the ground poppy seeds and the filling sugar and cook for six minutes, stirring.
10. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the nuts, raisins and candied peel.
11. Mix in the sponge crumbs and the almond extract.
12. Leave the filling to cool completely.
13. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a clean bowl.
14. Fold the whites into the cooled poppy paste.
15. Roll the risen dough into a 30 cm square on a floured surface.
16. Lay the chilled butter square in the centre at a forty-five degree angle.
17. Fold the four corners of the dough over the butter and pinch the seams shut.
18. Roll the parcel out into a long rectangle about 1 cm thick.
19. Fold the rectangle into three like a letter and chill it for thirty minutes.
20. Repeat the rolling, folding and chilling twice more.
21. Roll the finished dough out to a rectangle 40 cm by 30 cm.
22. Cut the rectangle into twelve long triangles.
23. Spoon a thick line of poppy filling along the wide base of each triangle.
24. Roll each triangle up from the base towards the point.
25. Bend the rolls into crescents and set them on lined baking trays.
26. Cover the trays and prove the crescents for forty minutes.
27. Heat the oven to 190°C.
28. Brush the crescents with the beaten glazing egg.
29. Bake them for twenty-five minutes until deep golden.
30. Cool the crescents completely on a wire rack.
31. Beat the icing sugar with the lemon juice into a thick glaze.
32. Spoon the glaze over each crescent and scatter chopped nuts on top.