Moldovan Poppy Seed Pita
Another one of my childhood desserts is the poppy seed pita. My grandmother would make the pitas when she'd start the fire in the stove and would bake them directly on the stove top. Usually, this is one of the basic desserts of a memorial meal in the north of Moldova.
I managed to recreate the taste and flavour of fried dough using a classic pan. What's most important is to be patient and brown the dough cakes well over high heat.
From the quantities below you will get a fairly generous amount of poppy seed pita. You can make only half if it's your first try. Serve warm immediately, but also cold from the refrigerator will have the same success. These fasting cakes are very delicious, bringing the taste of home ...
I recommend that you scald the poppy seeds first. By the time you've finished working the dough, poppy seeds will have softened just fine.
Pour 100ml of hot water over 100g of poppy seeds, mix and let sit on the table for 30-60 minutes.
Put 500g of flour in a large bowl, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoons of oil and gradually pour water.
Mix everything with a spoon until the dough starts to come together.
Turn the dough out onto the table and knead until smooth. Let rest for 10 minutes on the table, covered with a towel or cling film.
After 10 minutes, cut into six equal pieces and shape into balls.
Leave the balls to rest for another 10 minutes.
Place a 26-28cm diameter frying pan on the stove, without greasing at all.
With a rolling pin, spread out each ball into thin rounds, about 2 mm.
Bake the pitas on the dry, hot pan and brown evenly on both sides.
Cook over maximum heat, so that the dough cakes brown quickly.
Once they are done, stack the pitas one on top of the other and allow them to cool while we prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Grind the walnuts with a blender. We don't want to make powder, we need them to be a bit crunchy.
Also, I toasted them a little in the pan, for a more intense aroma.
Break the pita bread into small pieces and place in the bowl where we will mix everything.
Fill a saucepan with 200ml of water, add 150g of sugar, mix. Place over heat until this syrup comes to a boil.
Grind the scalded poppy seeds in the blender and add to the cake in the bowl.
Put the chopped walnuts as well.
Pour over the hot syrup.
Mix everything together and allow to sit and infuse for ten minutes on the table.
You can serve this cake warm or cold, either way is very good.
You can make the pita ahead of time and mix with the syrup on the day you need.
Enjoy!
