Traditional fillings for the
Christmas beigli are walnut and poppy seeds. My beigli pastry makes six good
size rolls. Since walnut beigli is more popular, the following two recipes are
perfect to fill 4 walnut and 2 poppy seed rolls.
FILLINGS FOR HUNGARIAN NUT ROLLS
Walnut Filling:
Walnut filling is easy to
make. Walnuts can be finely ground even with the most primitive nut grinder. In
a food processor all it takes is pressing the pulse button a couple of times
and you have finely ground walnuts. This amount will be sufficient to fill 4
good sized beiglis.
6 cups walnuts, shelled
1/4 cup milk
4 cups icing sugar
3/4 cup raisins
3 Tbsp lemon freshly grated lemon
rind
1 Tbsp rum
- Finely grind the walnut meats and place in a bowl.
- Heat the milk to the boiling point, but do not boil.
- Drip by drip start adding the scalding hot milk until the walnuts are barely moist!
- Add as little milk as possible. The filling that is too wet will spill out during baking. Discard the unused milk.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the walnuts and stir to combine.
Poppy Seed Filling:
Poppy seeds are known as a
flavouring/decorative item sold in tiny packets or in spice jars. With the
connection to opium, the use of poppy seeds hasn’t really caught on in North America. This makes as much sense as avoiding
barley because of whiskey, but people are not convinced easily. Be that it
may, we can still find large quantities of poppy seeds in urban centers or in
towns with North Middle Eastern, Eastern European or Kosher supermarkets. In Canada the
Superstore used to have it just before Christmas, but I haven't seen it in
recent years. Nowadays the Bulk Barn is the best source for poppy seeds.
Although the neighborhood German deli carries canned poppy seed filling, the
one time I used it was a bit of a letdown. If I couldn't get a hold of poppy
seeds I would just as soon use walnuts.
In Hungarian cuisine, poppy seeds
are finely ground and unless you have access to an old poppy seed grinder or an
industrial strength seed grinder, grinding poppy seeds can be a huge
undertaking. In previous years I would painstakingly grind up 200 grams of
poppy seeds in two tablespoon batches with a small electric coffee grinder for
the Christmas beigli... Then I discovered heat treating! Heat treating
softens the seeds and making it possible to cook the filling. The following
recipe fills 2 good sized beiglis.
Heat Treating Poppy Seeds:
200g poppy seeds*
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
* Make sure the poppy seeds are
fresh at the time of purchase. Poppy seeds go rancid rather quickly and if not
used right of way store them in the freezer in an airtight container.
The first step is HEAT TREATING
THE POPPY SEEDS.
- Preheat the skillet at a LOW MEDIUM. Do not to start out with high heat. Even if you turn down the heat before you add the seeds, the pan will be still too hot. Poppy seeds burn easily and turn bitter on high heat. Give it time, don’t hurry the process.
- While the pan heats up, line the bottom of the baking pans with parchment paper.
- Spray the parchment paper and the sides of the pans with cooking spray and set them aside.
- When the pan is thoroughly heated on low medium, add the poppy seeds, gently stirring with a heat proof plastic spatula. [gently, because the seeds can scrape the coating of the pan]
- Keep stirring until the seeds begin to steam a little.
- Continue to stir for 1-2 minutes longer and then remove the skillet from the heat.
- Transfer the poppy seeds to a large chilled bowl to cool.
- The seeds must cool down to room temperature before starting on the filling.
The next step is COOKING THE
FILLING.
- Place all ingredients in a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and cool before using.
