Mini stollens with the simplest poppy seed filling #veganchristmas

When I started working on this recipe, I realized how great and important a Christmas ritual it is to cook poppy seeds. Oh my! THIS AROMA! I don’t cook poppy seeds all year round, so it is not surprising that it feels like the essence of December festive cooking for me. And when I add the scented notes of orange zest to it, I am already drifting away and simply want to eat Polish dumplings and drink mulled wine all December long.

Besides: these buns/yeast croissants/mini stollens are really tasty and simple, with a lot of nuts and homemade poppy seed filling, which is irreplaceable. Really, if you can, do not buy any ready-made filling (go on and just check its list of ingredients), because preparing your own filling is really a piece of cake and a truly delicious thing.

• 1 cup of dry poppy seeds
• 1 orange (juice and zest)
• 100g (almost a whole glass) of walnuts or hazelnuts, cut into really small pieces
• 100ml of sweet syrup (agave, maple, date or rice)
• 2 flat tbsp of coconut oil (or vegan margarine)
• a good pinch of salt

Yeast dough for the buns/croissants: 

• 40g of fresh yeast (or two packages of dry ones – 14g)
• 1/2 cup of warm plant-based milk (or just water)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil (or vegan margarine)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups of wheat or spelt flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:

•  100g powdered sugar (I grind sugar in a coffee grinder)
• a good pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp lemon or orange juice

1. Boil dry poppy seeds in two glasses of water over low heat for 20 minutes (so you can prepare the yeast dough in the meantime).

2. Drain the cooked poppy seeds using a sieve and let it dry for a few minutes. Place the poppy seeds, coconut oil, salt and sweet syrup in a blending vessel. Blend thoroughly for 2 minutes.

3. Grate the zest of one orange (rinse the fruit with boiling water first!) Squeeze out the juice from one half of an orange. Add the juice and zest and the finely chopped nuts to the poppy seed filling.

4. Put the poppy seed filling in the fridge for a few minutes to make it a little bit solid.

Yeast dough:

1. Mix the yeast thoroughly with warm milk, coconut oil, sugar and salt.

2. Gradually add the liquid mixture to the flour, mixing it at the same time.

3. Using your hands (covered with a little oil) or a food processor, knead a flexible ball of dough. Cover it with a cloth and put it in a warm place for at least one hour.

Preparation of the mini poppy seed stollen:

1. Divide the yeast dough into two parts. On a floured counter, roll out one half of the dough into a big rectangle.

2. Spread half of the poppy seed filling evenly over the entire dough rectangle. Divide the rectangle into six smaller ones. You can use a slightly dull knife for this.

3. Roll each rectangle, and then fold it in the shape of a snail or simple croissant.

4. Start again with the second part of the dough.

5. Place the buns/croissants on a baking sheet lined with paper and set them aside for 30 minutes.

6. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes.

Frosting:

1. Mix the powdered sugar thoroughly with the juice and salt.

2. Pour it over the cooled poppy seed buns. You can place finely chopped nuts or a pinch of poppy seeds on the still liquid and sticky frosting.

Tips:

• Yeast dough tastes best when eaten within 24 hours. You can bake only half of the stollens if you like, and refrigerate the remaining ones, just ready to be baked. Then you can eat them the next day. After removing the dough from the refrigerator, wait at least half an hour before placing it in the oven.

• Using the recipe above, you can also prepare poppy seed rolls (think of cinnamon rolls). In this case, however, the way of folding the dough will be a bit different.