Shulyky (шулики, broken cake in poppy-honey sauce)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A large baking tray
• •A rolling pin
• •A fine sieve
• •A spice grinder, food processor, or makitra and pestle
• •A deep serving bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the poppy

   Put the poppy seeds in a bowl and cover them with the boiling water. Leave them until they swell, darken, and smell faintly green and nutty. Drain well through a fine sieve. If water sits in the seeds, the sauce will taste thin instead of rich.

   Old kitchens used a makitra, a ridged clay bowl, and a wooden pestle. A spice grinder or food processor is more modern and perfectly useful; just don't leave the seeds whole.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a wide bowl. Pour in the sunflower oil and rub it through with your fingers until the flour feels slightly sandy, then add the warm water and gather everything into a firm dough. Knead only until smooth. This is a flatcake, not bread, so don't work it into obedience.

3. 3

   Rest and roll

   Cover the dough and let it sit until it relaxes under your hand, about the time it takes to clear the table and heat the oven to 200C. Roll it on a floured surface into one thin round or rectangle, roughly the thickness of two stacked coins. Prick it all over with a fork so it bakes flat, then brush lightly with sunflower oil.

4. 4

   Bake the korzh

   Slide the flatcake onto a baking tray and bake until the surface is dry, the edges are golden, and the kitchen smells of toasted wheat. It should sound firm when you tap it, not soft like bread. Let it cool until your hands can handle it.

5. 5

   Grind the poppy

   Grind the drained poppy seeds until they bruise, darken, and begin to clump from their own oil. Stop and scrape often. You are waiting for the smell to change: first dusty, then warm, almost like cut grass and nuts. Stir in the honey, warm water, salt, and the lemon juice or sour cherry syrup if you want a little lift.

   The sauce should pour slowly from a spoon, black-speckled and glossy. If it sits like paste, add warm water by the spoonful. If it tastes flat, add a pinch more salt before more honey.
6. 6

   Break and soak

   Break the cooled korzh by hand into bite-size shards, not neat squares. Put them into a deep bowl and pour the poppy-honey sauce over the top, turning gently so every rough edge gets coated. Leave it until the pieces soften but still remember they were baked. Taste one from the bottom of the bowl; that's where the honey gathers.

7. 7

   Serve generously

   Spoon the shulyky into small bowls with extra sauce from the bottom. Serve at room temperature, sticky, dark, and a little messy. A tidy portion would miss the point.

Chef Tips

• •Buy fresh poppy seeds from a shop with turnover. Old poppy tastes dusty and bitter, and no amount of honey will rescue it.
• •If you have a Ukrainian makitra, use it. The ridges crush the seeds beautifully. If not, pulse in a spice grinder in small batches or use a food processor and patience.
• •The korzh forgives rough rolling and uneven edges. The poppy does not forgive being left whole; grinding is the step that makes the sauce.
• •Some families make the flatcake richer with milk, egg, or kefir. For Makoviy I keep this version lean, because the feast falls as the Dormition Fast begins.
• •If the soaked shulyky thicken too much as they sit, loosen with a little warm water and honey stirred together. The bowl should be spoonable, not dry.

Advance Preparation

• •The korzh can be baked a day ahead and kept wrapped once cool. Break it only when you're ready to soak it.
• •The poppy seeds can be soaked and drained several hours ahead, then kept covered in the fridge.
• •Shulyky are best after 20 to 30 minutes of soaking, when the pieces soften but have not collapsed. Leftovers keep overnight in the fridge and turn more pudding-like, which is not a tragedy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 135g)