These bars kind of mark the beginning of my baking. I’ve baked since I was very young, in primary school, but the only two things I would make were simple butter cookies and nutella and oats cookies. Let’s not judge me when I say that almost every time I made those nutella and oats ones I would eat at least half of the batter raw… Once I ate all of the batter raw, that’s kind of wrong, but nobody was stopping me (my grandma once said that my stomach would hurt, but I just said “mhm” and continued eating) and it was so damn delicious. I can’t help if the raw batter tasted better than the actual baked cookies, right? Now I want to find the recipe and make it. Good plan.
Back to the story. So when I was in high school my mom randomly bought two baking books with recipes for me and it all went up from there (my mom would say it went down from there because of the infinite amount of dirty dishes she had to clean after me, oh do I miss those days haha… now I clean everything alone and I hate dirty dishes, but not even that can stop me from baking). I started baking almost every other day.
Getting a package of poppy seeds from a friend reminded me of the first recipe I made from those two books; this one. I decided to make some changes to the recipe and now I love it even more, this recipe makes a small batch so feel free to double the recipe.
Little crunchy specks of poppy seeds, sweet, lemony, smooth cottage cheese custard and crumbly dough. Delicious!
Ingredients
Dough
100 g butter
100 g sugar
250 g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 small egg
1/4 tsp salt
Poppy seed filling
130 g poppy seeds
130 g milk
50 g sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
20 g cornstarch
1 small egg
1 tbsp oil
Cottage cheese filling
150 g sugar
20 g cornstarch
2 small eggs
125 ml milk
400 g curd
30 g room temperature butter
juice and zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
Dough
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt then add butter and mix it with flour so that you get a crumbly mixture resembling bread crumbs. Now add the egg and sugar and form a dough that just holds together. If it’s not coming together add a teaspoon or tablespoon of cold water. Divide the dough into two parts and make balls out of it. Wrap them in a cling wrap and put one in the fridge and one in the freezer for half an hour. Meantime make the fillings.
Poppy seed filling
Put milk, sugar, and cinnamon in a pan and heat it up. In a bowl mix the poppy seeds with cornstarch and add them to the boiling milk. Cook this mixture for about 5 minutes, or until it thickens, whisking constantly. Mix the egg yolk with oil. Remove the poppy seeds mixture from the heat and leave it to cool for a minute or two. Add the egg yolk mixture, mix well and leave to cool completely. Beat the egg white to soft peaks and fold it into the poppy seed filling.
Curd filling
In a bowl mix together eggs, sugar, milk, and cornstarch. Now add the cottage cheese, butter, and lemon juice and zest, mix until well combined. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the cottage cheese filling.
Assemble
Preheat the oven to 180℃ and line a 23 x 23 cm baking pan with parchment paper (you can also grease and flour it). Take the dough from the fridge, roll out a 23 x 23 cm square and place it into the prepared pan. Put the poppy seed filling on top and on top of that put the cottage cheese filling and distribute evenly. Now take the dough from the freezer and grate it on top. Bake in the oven for 50-60 min, the top should be a golden brown color. Leave to cool completely before cutting. Dust with powdered sugar.
Enjoy 🙂
Recipe adapted from: Moje najboljše pecivo
Poppy Seed Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Dough
- 113 g butter cold
- 100 g sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 250 g flour all purpose
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
Poppy seed filling
- 130 g poppy seeds
- 130 g milk
- 50 g sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 20 g cornstarch
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp oil
Curd filling
- 150 g sugar
- 20 g cornstarch
- 2 eggs
- 125 g milk
- 400 g cream cheese philadephia
- 30 g room temperature butter
- 2 lemons juice and zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ (350F) and line a 23 x 23 cm (9×9 inch) baking pan with parchment paper (or you can grease and flour it).
Dough
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt until well cmobined.
- Add the cold butter in pieces and rub it into the flour so that you get a crumbly mixture resembling bread crumbs. You can also do this in a food processor by blizing the processor a few times to get the crumb texture.
- Mix in the sugar and lemon zest.
- Then and then add the egg. Combine the dough with your hands or a food processor until you form a dough that just holds together. If it’s really not coming together add a teaspoon or two of cold water.
- Divide the dough into two parts and make a ball out of one part. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the freezer while you make everything else. Distribute the other half on the prepared baking pan, patting it down to cover all the bottom. The layer will be quite thin. Set aside in the fridge.
Poppy Seed Filling
- Put milk, half of the sugar, and cinnamon in a pan and heat it until boil.
- In a bowl, mix the poppy seeds with cornstarch, then add to the hot milk and quickly mix.
- Cook this mixture for about 3-4 minutes to thicken and cook the cornstarch, whisking constantly.
- Whisk the egg yolk together with oil.
- Remove the poppy seed filling from the heat and leave it to cool for a minute or two. Then, add the egg yolk mixture, mix well and set aside to cool completely.
- Make the meringue: beat the egg white until frothy and then slowly start adding the other half of the sugar while mixing. Mix for about 3 minutes until you achieve stiff peaks. When the poppy seed mixture cools down to room temperature, gently fold in the meringue. Set aside.
Cheesecake Filling
- In a bowl mix together the egg yolks, half of the sugar, and cornstarch until well combined. Mix in the milk.
- Now add the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and zest, mix until well combined.
- Like before, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with the other half of the sugar and then gently fold it into the cream cheese mixture.
Assemble
- Take the baking pan with the dough from the fridge and distribute the poppy seed filling on top.
- Pour the cheesecake filling on top.
- Now take the dough from the freezer and grate it on top, covering everything. If you find it easier, you could grate the dough on a plate and then distribute the dough with your hands.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 55 minutes, the top should be a golden brown and the cheesecake will wobble just slighly when you shake the pan.
- Leave to cool completely, about 2 hours. You can then cut it at that point of place in the fridge to cool even more.
- Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Notes
- You can make this in a round 10 inch (25 cm) baking pan.
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