Makovyi Pyrih z Vyshniamy (маковий пиріг з вишнями, poppy seed and sour cherry pie)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A 26cm round cake tin or deep baking tray
• •A fine sieve and muslin
• •A poppy seed mill, mortar, or food processor
• •A rolling pin

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Stir the lukewarm milk with the yeast and a spoonful of the dough sugar. Leave it until the surface looks creamy and a little foamy. If it sits there flat and sulking, your yeast is tired; start again now, before it wastes your flour.

2. 2

   Mix the dough

   Put the flour, remaining dough sugar, and salt in a wide bowl. Add the eggs, melted butter, and the yeast milk, then mix until no dry flour remains. Knead until the dough turns smooth, elastic, and soft as an earlobe, adding only a dusting of flour if it clings badly to your hands.

   A soft dough gives you a tender pyrih. If you keep feeding it flour until it behaves like bread dough, the finished crumb will be tight and dry.
3. 3

   Let it rise

   Oil the bowl lightly with sunflower oil, turn the dough in it, cover, and leave it somewhere warm until it has puffed and feels full of air under your fingertips. Look for the dough, not the clock. A cool kitchen takes its time, and bread has no respect for your plans.

4. 4

   Scald the poppy

   Pour the boiling water over the poppy seeds, cover, and let them swell until they smell warm and grassy rather than dusty. Drain very well through a fine sieve lined with muslin, then press out the extra water. Wet poppy filling makes a heavy stripe inside the pie, and nobody asked for that.

5. 5

   Grind the filling

   Grind the drained poppy seeds in a poppy seed mill, mortar, or food processor with the honey, filling sugar, softened butter, lemon zest, and vanilla if using. Keep going until the seeds break open and the mixture darkens, shines slightly, and smells nutty. It should move like a thick paste, not loose gravel.

   This is the step that decides the dish. Whole poppy seeds pass through you with all their flavor locked inside; ground seeds give up their oil, sweetness, and perfume.
6. 6

   Prepare the cherries

   Taste the cherries. If they are properly sour, smile and leave them alone. Toss them with the potato starch only when you are ready to fill the dough, so their juice thickens in the bake instead of flooding the board.

7. 7

   Fill the pie

   Roll the risen dough on a floured surface into a large rectangle, about the size of a tea towel. Spread the poppy filling over it, leaving a clean border, then scatter the cherries across the top. Roll it up from the long side and coil it into a buttered 26cm round tin, or lay it as a long roll in a deep baking tray if that is what you have.

8. 8

   Prove and glaze

   Cover the shaped pyrih and leave it until it has relaxed into the tin and looks softly swollen. Brush with the egg yolk and milk, then scatter with sugar. If a cherry leaks at the edge, let it. That violet stain is not a mistake.

9. 9

   Bake until bronzed

   Bake at 180C until the top is deep golden, the sides feel set, and the tin gives a low hollow sound when tapped. The poppy will smell toasted and honeyed, and the cherry juices will bubble in small dark beads where they have escaped.

10. 10

    Cool before slicing

    Let the pyrih cool in the tin until warm, then lift it out and wait a little longer before cutting. I know. But hot poppy filling smears and cherries run everywhere; warm slices hold their layers and still taste generous.

Chef Tips

• •Frozen sour cherries work beautifully. Thaw them in a sieve and save the juice for kompot or syrup; don't pour it into the filling unless you want a wet pie.
• •If you can't grind poppy seeds properly, buy fresh ground poppy seed filling from a Ukrainian or Polish shop and loosen it with a spoon of honey. A bit more modern, still a good table.
• •The dough and shaping forgive you. The poppy grinding doesn't. Break the seeds open until the smell changes, because that is where the flavor lives.
• •This keeps well for two days wrapped at room temperature. After that, toast slices lightly and eat them with strong tea or a spoon of smetana.

Advance Preparation

• •The poppy seeds can be scalded, drained, and ground a day ahead; keep the filling covered in the fridge.
• •The finished pyrih is best made several hours before serving, so the crumb sets and the cherry juice settles into the poppy layer.
• •For a calmer morning, let the mixed dough rise overnight in the fridge, then shape it while still cool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 145g)