Poppy seeds are a pleasure to bake with. They provide intense flavour and deliver great contrast when placed on the crust. Central European, Eastern European and Jewish baking uses poppy seeds extensively in both savoury and sweet breads. I always have some whole poppy seeds and ground seeds in the store cupboard – they are great for preparing a batch of decorative poppy seed dinner rolls or a fragrant poppy seed dessert. Here is my collection of the best poppy seed bread recipes out there. Knock yourself out!
Best poppy seed bread recipes
- Sweet poppy seed roll – A beautiful poppy seed roll (Strudel in German), popular in Poland, Hungary, Austria and other Central and Eastern European countries. The roll is a sweet yeasted bread with a dense, rich, often rum-infused filling of ground poppy seeds and sugar.
- Poppy seed buns – Enriched yeast buns with a poppy seed topping. Attractive and scrumptiously soft dinner rolls which are delicious with both sweet and savoury dishes.
- Poppy seed crispbread – The perfect crispbreads for dips or cheese boards.
- Sourdough with poppy seeds – Simply add poppy seeds into your favourite seeded sourdough bread recipe.
- Mohnflesserl – Austrian-style plaited buns. One of my childhood favourites. See here for how the folding is done.
- Poppy seed noodles – Not a ‘bread’ – I know – but these doughy noodles, swirled in a butter and poppy seed mixture needed to be mentioned here.
- Bagels with poppy seeds – A classic. Adding poppy seeds on top of your bagels is a delicious and appealing way to decorate your baked goods.
- Challah – Another traditional way of using whole poppy seeds to complete the look of a braided bread.
- Germknödel – Steamed yeasted buns with a plum jam filling, topped with a fragrant poppy seed and sugar mixture and served with vanilla sauce.
- Poppy seed crackers – In the words of the recipe author: “Big, thick and crispy, salty and satisfying crackers.”