Poppy seed croissants - rogale marcińskie

I really like poppy seed filing in everything so when I have a chance to bake something with it I am super excited. In one of the regions of Poland, poppy seeds filed croissants (aka rogale marcińskie) are baked each year on 11th of November. The tradition of baking these delicious pastries started in 1891 when a priest from a Poznań’s St. Martin parish asked people to make something that can be later given to the poor. The following night, one of the local bakers had dreamed of St. Martin riding on a horse and galloping so fast that the horse lost one of his horseshoes. The horseshoe that the baker saw in his dream gave him an inspiration to bake pastries in this shape as a gift for the poor. This croissants were so popular that from this year onward more and more people joined in baking the croissants so that everyone could either buy them or receive them for free. This tradition was cultivated throughout the years and was only stopped for the duration of 1st and 2nd world war. Today, I want to share a recipe for this amazing croissants with you. 

Cheers, 

Suzanah

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of warm milk
• 1 tbs of dry yeast
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs of sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3.5 cup of flour
• 225 g of butter (use 25g for the dough and leave the rest for spreading on the dough)
• poppy seed filling (grounded poppy seeds mixed with marcepan and sour cream)
• egg wash (1 egg and a spoon of water or milk)

  1. Combine all of the ingredients together but do not knead the dough for long. Then form a ball, wrap it in a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour. 

2. Roll out the cool dough to a rectangle of about 30 x 15 cm, then spread the rest of butter on top of the dough. When butter is coated fold grab one end and fold 1/3th of the dough on top, then repeat this for the other side. Roll out the dough to double the shorter edge. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30-45 min. Repeat the rolling, folding and cooling process 3 times. After 3rd time leave the dough to grow in the fridge overnight (at least 5 hours). Folding the dough will ensure that the croissants will be flaky. 

3. Next day, take the dough out of the fridge 20 minutes before making croissants. After that time roll it out and cup into triangles. Spread the filling in the middle of each triangle, leaving some free space on each edge. Then roll the croissant starting from the widest edge and form a horseshoe shape and place each of the croissants on the baking tray. The croissants will grow during baking so leave sufficient space between them. When all croissants are on the baking tray leave them covered for 40 minutes until they double in size, then coat them in egg wash and place them in the preheated oven at 180oC for 20-30 minutes.  

4.When done baking, cool down the croissants on a cooling rack and spread icing on top when still hot.