Poppies, copenhagen poppy, tea poppy, danish pastry breakfast rolls with poppy seeds

The classic poppy - like a croissant, but with poppy seeds. © kvalifood.com

Video recipe - it is well known that we danes have a hampering for danish pastry. Even our breakfast bread is often made from this. There is the classic “poppy” (birkes) that is a non sweet danish pastry with a load of poppy seed on top. Hence the name. And there is the “copenhagen poppy / tea poppy” where the pastry is a bit sweeter and there is almond remonce for filling. It is not quite a cake and not quite a breakfast roll. But very good none the less.

Ingredients

16 pcs.

remonce (watch the recipe)

  • 1½ oz (50 grams) of sugar
  • 1½ oz (50 grams) of butter, soft
  • 1½ oz (50 grams) of marzipan (homemade marcipan recipe)

egg wash, and sugar sprinkle

  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon cream, milk or water
  • 1½ oz (50 gram) poppy seeds
  • 1½ oz (50 gram) sesame seeds (optional)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKUv-qiYF-I

Directions / copenhagen poppies - tea poppies

Mix the remonce.

Make the Danish pastry dough:-S

Roll the pastry dough into a 16" x 16" (40 cm x 40 cm) plate of approx. 1/4" (½ cm) thickness.

Trim the edges so that you get a nice square.

Cut the dough into 2 equal size halves.

For each half:

Put the remonce on 2/3 of the dough, lengthwise.

Fold the 1/3 without remonce over the middle 1/3. Fold the last 1/3 over the other two. For a total of 3 layers of dough.

Across the fold, roll it out to a 40-60 cm wide plate with your cake roll. Depending on how high and wide you wish your poppies to be. If they are too narrow and high, they will collapse during baking, as mine does in the video. In the video I roll out to 40 cm.

Cut 6-8 in equal pieces.

Let them rise for ½ -1 hour until they double in size.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on the poppy seeds.

Convection oven: bake at 356°F (180° C) for 25-30 minutes.

Normal oven: bake at 390°F (200° C) for 25-30 minutes.

Poppies

You need to change the Danish pastry dough to a croiossant dough instead. It is a very small changes:

  • 1 tbsp of sugar instead of 1½ oz (50 grams) of sugar
  • 1 tsp salt instead of no salt :-S
  • 9 oz (250 gram) of rolling butter in stead of  13 oz  (375 gram)
  • no remonce - which is the biggest difference.

Fold each of the 2 pastry halfs in 3 on the short edge.

Cut it in 8 pieces with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife. Each should become about the size of a breakfast roll.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle generously with poppy seeds.

Let them rise and Bake. Just like the Copenhagen poppies above.

Copious amounts of copenhagen poppies. © kvalifood.com

Closeup of regular poppies. © kvalifood.com

Croissant pastry folded in 3 layers on the short edge. © kvalifood.com

Brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with plenty of poppy seeds. © kvalifood.com