Traditional Eastern Slovak meal served during Christmas.

4 persons

Ingrediences

Dough

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 63 g fresh yeast
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp powdered sugar

Poppy seed mixture

• 1 cup poppy seeds
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 12 dkg melted butter

Quark mixture

• 25 dkg quark / cottage cheese / fromage frais / fromage blanc / Mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 12 dkg melted butter

Directions

1. Add the yeast, sugar and milk into a bowl.
2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk and let it sit for 10-15 minutes to “come back to life”. You’ll likely notice a foaming slightly.
3. Add flour and sunflower oil into the bowl and stir.
4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. When the dough gets sticky, dust it with some extra flour.
5. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until it will have nearly doubled in size.
6. Push the air out of the dough with your hands (“Push the dough down”).
7. Cut the dough in 3 pieces.
8. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1 cm thick.
9. Cut the dough into 1 cm cubes (use a pizza cutter).
   

   

10. Line a pie pan with the parchment paper.
11. Put the cubes onto the parchment paper.
12. Repeat the process with the two remaining pieces of the dough.
13. Preheat an oven to 190 °C (375 ºF) and bake for 7 minutes.
14. Take the cubes out of the oven and let them cool and put them in a big bowl.
15. Melt the butter in a small pan.
16. Bring 4 liters of water to a boil in a large pot and turn of the heat.
17. Put the cubes into the pot and let them soak the water a little bit, but don’t cook it.
18. Strain the cubes and put them in a bowl.
19. Mix the cubes with the melted butter.
20. Put a half portion of the cubes in a separate bowl.
21. Mix the first portion with poppy seed mixture and second portion of the cubes with quark mixture.
22. Serve it hot.