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Foody Thursday - "Rushnychok" Ukrainian Poppy Seed Roll

By Marina Gavrylyuk

Real Estate Sales Representative with Sutton Group Summit

July 10, 2014 01:12 AM

This is my Mom's favorite treat, and today is her B-Day! It would be just a shame not to bake it for her. Happy Birthday, Mom!
"Rushnyk" or "Rushnychok" is essentially a towel, but a very special kind. It is only used for special occasions and rituals, embroidered and decorated, and is considered to be the safeguard for the family, being passed from generation to generation. It takes a tremendous amount of time and patience to make a Rushnyk. The special bread we are making today is called "Rushnychok" since it is decorated to resemble Rushnyk. Hope you enjoy it!

I noticed for the most poppy seed containing pastries in Canada, poppy seeds are not prepared the right way, you just can't taste them and here is why.

To taste poppy seeds, the shell of the seed needs to be broken, so we boil them and then we mash them.

3 cups poppy seeds + water to cover, then boil for half an hour.

Our grandma's used MAKOGIN, a wooden stick, to mash the poppy seeds and let me tell you, quite the process it was, taking tons of time and effort. We are quite lucky to have blenders that could cope with the job just fine.

We will be blending our boiled poppy seeds until they start turning white.

Then add:

1 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of honey
2 eggs (eggs will hold the filling together and it want fall out while you cut and eat the bread.

As an option you could add raisins. A friend of mine used to add cinnamon, but I think it overpowers the delicate taste of poppy.

For the dough I am using this recipe, but you can use any kind of yeast based dough.

Roll out the dough into rectangular shape, spread the filling, a lot of it! And roll it up!

Transfer the roll onto slightly greased cookie sheet and let it raise.
I had some dough left overs that would not work into any decent size roll, so I also made some little buns, they are called "Snails", I wonder why :) Buns are made same way as a roll, but instead of baking the whole thing, you cut the roll up and press each piece in the middle.

Preheat the oven to 180C. I usually turn the oven on and place the goodies on top for raising.

Once the rolls increase in size and start looking puffy, it is the time to decorate!

Apply the egg wash with a brush. Egg wash is just an egg mixed with a tablespoon of water, tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt.
Then decorate with try poppy seeds and red crumbles (teaspoon of butter + 1/4 cup sugar + 1/4 cup flour + drop of red food color - rub together till you get crumbles).

Here is another way to decorate! And you are ready to bake! Each large roll would take about 30 minutes to bake. If you are baking them along with little rolls like me - be careful and take the babies out sooner or they will burn by the time the big guy is ready.