Ingredients

for the dough:
125 ml milk
7.5 g sugar
5g active yeast
250 g Shipton Mill organic white No4 flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg yolks
25 g butter
½ teaspoon vanilla

for the filling:
150 g poppy seeds
50 g sugar
1 teaspoons butter
1 egg whites
1½ tablespoons honey
75 g raisins
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1/2 egg (use the other half for glazing)
1 tablespoon oil

Method

1. Cover the poppy seeds in boiling water and let sit for a few hours or overnight
2. Warm the milk to 43°C, pour into a large bowl
3. Stir in the sugar and the yeast, let sit for 5 minutes
4. Stir in the flour, salt, egg yolk, butter, and vanilla, kneading my hand to work in all of the flour
5. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let rise until doubled in size about 90 minutes
6. While the dough rises, strain the water from the poppy seeds using a paper towel lined colander
7. Grind the poppy seeds in a spice mill or a food processor, you’ll get the best results with a spice grinder, but you’ll have to process in batches
8. Mix sugar, butter, egg whites, honey, ground raisins (process in your spice grinder or just add to the food processor and mix) and almond extract
9. Punch down the dough
10. Roll the dough into a 14 inch x 10 inch rectangle
11. Spread the poppy seed filling on the dough rectangle, avoiding the edges
12. Roll up (on the long side), pinching to seal the dough, tucking the end underneath and pinching to keep the filling from leaking out
13. Place the roll on a baking paper lined baking sheet, seam side down
14. Cover with dish towel and let rise 35-40 minute
15. Preheat oven to 175 C
16. Brush with whole beaten egg, bake for 35 minutes
17. Cool
18. Cut into 1/2 inch slices