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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Mohnkuchen (German poppyseed streusel cake)

As a pre-emptive reward for S coming in to my German class tomorrow (show and tell the germans in your life), I asked him what his favourite German cake was and then baked it.  I actually really can't understand why I haven't done much German baking before - there's such a beautiful range of German cakes...

He said Mohnkuchen.  I'm not sure if I've ever eaten proper Mohnkuchen - I've had some nice German cakey things made with lots of poppyseeds, but I don't think I've ever had the full streuselly whammy.  So there was an inherent challenge in this - how to make something when you don't know what it should be like, but the person you're making it for most definitely does?

Ein Stück Mohnkuchen
First challenge, actually, was trying to find a large quantity of poppyseeds.  Happily I managed to find them in the first place I looked: the Indian store in Coolidge Corner.  The package had a very basic label, but with some interesting facts:  the Latin name (Papaver somniferum) and the country of origin (Australia).  The somniferum made me wonder if poppyseeds come from the same poppy plants as opium / morphine / heroin.  And I wondered why they came from Australia, of all places.  Consultation with Wikipedia indicates that yes, these are from the exact same type of poppy as opium (that I also remember growing in the garden in East Linton), and that although there is little opium in the seeds (the latex is the big hitter), there is still some.  Are we going to get high?  There's a lot of poppyseeds in this cake.  Is this why it's S's favourite?  And apparently the USA has a special trade deal with Australia (plus 2 other countries, neither of which is Afghanistan) for supply of poppyseeds, so I guess that's why they came so far.

Next challenge was finding a recipe I could understand sufficiently well to follow.  Obviously most of the authentic ones are in German and are not vegan.  My German is improving, but I can't skim a page like I can in English yet.  The solution to that challenge was the happy discovery of this recipe on a wonderful blog by a German woman living in the UK - there are lots of other lovely-looking things on there I look forward to trying out...


This recipe gives quantities for a round spring form of 23 – 26 cm diameter.  I only have a ~20 cm diameter one so used that, but perhaps a wider one would have given better results.

For the pastry base:

250 g plain flour
80 g sugar
120 g fake butter
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 tbsp hot water (egg substitute)
½ tsp baking powder

For the poppyseed filling:

40 g cornflour (used custard powder)
4 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla pod (used 1 tsp vanilla essence)
500 ml fake milk
250 g ground poppy seed (used a ~ 50 : 50 mixture of ground and whole - S said he preferred whole, I thought some ground might give better texture)
swig of dark rum (or a handful of raisins soaked in rum) (used Pimms as didn't have rum)

For the streusel (crumble) topping:
100 g flour
70 g fake butter
70 g sugar

Combine the base ingredients and knead until you have a smooth ball of dough.  Leave to rest in the fridge.

For the filling, mix the corn flour / custard and sugar.  Add a bit of cold milk and whisk until there are no lumps left.  Boil the rest of the milk with the vanilla (seeds scraped into the milk if using a pod).  When it is boiling remove the vanilla pod and whisk it into the cornflour mixture.  Pour the mixture back into the pan and boil for a minute or so, whisking constantly until the mixture resembles thick custard.  Add the poppy seeds and booze.  Leave to cool slightly.

In the meantime make the topping by rubbing the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar.

Roll out the pastry (between two layers of cling film) and use it to line the prepared baking tin.  The edge parts should be about 3 cm high.  Fill the pastry case with the poppyseed mixture and smooth the surface. Top with the crumble and bake at about 180C / 350F for 60 minutes or until the crumbly top is golden brown.  Leave to cool thoroughly before removing from the tin.


I was quite happy with this.  S was too.  He said it could be a little sweeter, but I think we both quite enjoyed that it was not too sweet - the seediness stands out more, and it's a good anytime-even-breakfast-without-sugar-headrush cake because of it.  The best bit is where the mohn meets the streusel.  The worst bit is the pastry base.  The pastry was a bit wet so I wasn't sure about it from the start, but persevered and it came out OK - successfully lined the tin.  But it was a bit thick, especially around the edges where it was difficult to get it to stay in position.  So another time I might use less pastry, and either use less egg substitute, make it less watery, or miss it out entirely.  The relative smallness of the tin probably didn't help.  I also might make the custard a wee bit thicker and sweeter.  All that said, it came out really good - veganising was definitely successful, and I really like the mohniness.
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