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This is my Mom’s recipe for poppy seed roll and it’s one of my husband’s favorites. I’ve always been intimidated by this classic roulade, but I’ve come to find it’s not as complicated as I thought it would be.
Mom makes these at least once a month and always makes enough to share. They go fast! If you are going to make Rouletti (a half-a-day process; most of which is dough rising time), you may as well make 4 and share them with your family and friends. They will sure appreciate it!
I’m not a fan of using “special” ingredients but this recipe is really best with flour that is made in Canada; you’ll have the softest dough with Canadian flour. P.S. have any of you tried canned poppy seeds for this?
Ingredients for Poppy Seed Roll:
1 and 1/3 cups 1% milk
1 Tbsp active dry yeast (I used Red Star Brand)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick (8 Tbsp) salted butter (or unsalted butter plus 1/4 tsp salt)
4 cups bleached all-purpose flour (I used flour Made in Canada, which is best for this recipe) *measured correctly
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1 cup poppy seeds (you will need a food grinder to prepare these)
1 egg white, for egg wash
8 oz sweetened condensed milk (from a 14 oz can)
1 cup raisins
How to make Russian Poppy Seed Roll (Roulette):
1. Heat 1 1/3 cups milk in the microwave until it’s luke-warm. Pour milk in a large mixing bowl (preferably the bowl from your KitchenAid mixer). Add 1 tbsp yeast, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 cup flour. Mix until flour is well blended. Let stand in a warm oven (100 degrees) for 1/2 hour or put it on the counter for 1 hour at room temperature if you have all the time in the world.
(My oven doesn’t set that low, so I heat it to the lowest setting, then turn it off and let it sit in the warm oven with a towel underneath it. I also put a wooden spoon in the door to prop it open a bit. Quite the set-up!).
Dough should rise about 1.5 times in volume. Stir dough lightly.
2. Melt 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter (until it’s just melted – it should not be hot). Add butter to the batter. Add 2 whole eggs. Add the rest of your 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 cups flour. Whisk together.
3. Using the dough hook (on speed 2), add the remaining 2 cups of the flour 1/2 cup at a time. After all the flour is in, let it continue mixing 15 minutes. Dough is ready when it is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl. Finished dough will be soft. It will feel sticky to the touch but should not stick to your fingers.
4. Place dough in a very large mixing bowl (our Kitchenaid bowl is 6 Qts so I left it in the same bowl), cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place (in a 100 degree oven or in the sun) Let sit 2.5 hours to rise (until about 3-4 times in volume) Carefully peel off cellophane when it’s done.
Prepping the Poppy Seeds while dough is rising:
1. Fill medium saucepan with 1 cup poppy seeds and add enough water for impurities to float to the top, drain off the water and repeat.
2. Add 3 cups water to the pot. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer. (Don’t boil). Turn off. Cover with lid and let it sit for 30 minutes.
3. Return to a simmer (don’t boil). Turn off. Cover and let it sit for another 30 minutes. Drain poppy seeds by keeping lid on and put cheese cloth on lid to catch stray poppy seeds, or if you have a fine mesh sieve like this OXO Strainer
4. Push the poppy seeds through a food grinder using the fine grinding plate. You can also use a coffee grinder and do it in smaller batches. With the meat grinder, you need to push firmly. The seeds won’t grind well unless they are under pressure. P.S. I’ve tried putting them through a food processor and it did not work.
5. Mix 8 ounces of sweetened condensed milk into ground poppy seeds.
Assembling Poppy Seed Rolls (Rouletti):
1. Line an extra large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Put dough onto a clean, dry, non-stick surface (a sheet of parchment paper works well). Divide into 4 equal pieces.
3. Roll out the dough into an 11″ x 8″ oval-ish shape; similar to a thin crust pizza dough. It should not stick to your rolling pin. Spread 1/2 cup poppy seed mixture over the dough and sprinkle about 30-40 raisins over the poppy mixture.
4. Roll the Roulette (not too tight!) and place side-by-side on the lined baking sheet. Brush the top with egg wash (1 egg white, 1/2 tsp sour cream, 1/2 tsp sugar – whisked together). Let them rise on the counter for 1 hour (or in a 100˚F oven for 30 minutes).
5. Preheat Oven to 360°F and bake 28-30 min until the tops are deep golden (but not brown; I over-baked just a tad, but they were still great. My husband was raving about them. See the picture below; he couldn’t wait long enough for me to take a picture of all 4).
Enjoy! 🙂
Mom's Poppy Seed Roll (Roulette) Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/3 cups 1% milk
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast, I used Red Star Brand
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 stick, 8 tbsp salted butter (or unsalted butter plus 1/4 tsp salt)
- 4 cups bleached all-purpose flour, I used flour Made in Canada, which is best for this recipe
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
- 1 cup poppy seeds, you will need a food grinder to prepare these
- 1 egg white, for egg wash
- 8 oz sweetened condensed milk, from a 14 oz can
- 1 cup raisins
Instructions
How to make Russian Poppy Seed Rolls (Roulette):
- Heat 1 1/3 cups milk in the microwave until it's luke-warm. Pour milk in a large mixing bowl (preferably the bowl from your KitchenAid mixer). Add 1 tbsp yeast, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 cup flour. Mix until flour is well blended. Let stand in a warm oven (100 degrees) for 1/2 hour or put it on the counter for 1 hour at room temperature if you have all the time in the world. Dough should rise about 1.5 times in volume. Stir dough lightly.
- Melt 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter (until it's just melted - it should not be hot). Add butter to the batter. Add 2 whole eggs. Add the rest of your 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 cups flour. Whisk together.
- Using the dough hook (on speed 2), add the remaining 2 cups of the flour 1/2 cup at a time. After all the flour is in, let it continue mixing 15 minutes. Dough is ready when it is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl. Finished dough will be soft. It will feel sticky to the touch but should not stick to your fingers.
- Place dough in a very large mixing bowl (our Kitchenaid bowl is 6 Qts so I left it in the same bowl), cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place (in a 100 degree oven or in the sun) Let sit 2.5 hours to rise (until about 3-4 times in volume) Carefully peel off cellophane when it's done.
Prepping the Poppy Seeds while dough is rising:
- Fill medium saucepan with 1 cup poppy seeds and add enough water for impurities to float to the top, drain off the water and repeat.
- Add 3 cups water to the pot. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer. (Don't boil). Turn off. Cover with lid and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Return to a simmer (don't boil). Turn off. Cover and let it sit for another 30 minutes. Drain poppy seeds by keeping lid on and put cheese cloth on lid to catch stray poppy seeds, or if you have a fine mesh sieve, use it!
- Push the poppy seeds through a food grinder using the fine grinding plate. You can also use a coffee grinder and do it in smaller batches. With the meat grinder, you need to push firmly. The seeds won't grind well unless they are under pressure. P.S. I've tried putting them through a food processor and it did not work.
- Mix 8 ounces of sweetened condensed milk into ground poppy seeds.
Assembling Poppy Seed Rolls (Rouletti):
- Line an extra large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Put dough onto a clean, dry, non-stick surface (a sheet of parchment paper works well). Divide into 4 equal pieces.
- Roll out the dough into an 11" x 8" oval-ish shape; similar to a thin crust pizza dough. It should not stick to your rolling pin. Spread 1/2 cup poppy seed mixture over the dough and sprinkle about 30-40 raisins over the poppy mixture.
- Roll the Roulette (not too tight!) and Place side-by-side on the lined baking sheet. Brush the top with egg wash (1 egg white, 1/2 tsp sour cream, 1/2 tsp sugar - whisked together). Let them rise on the counter for 1 hour (or in a 100˚F oven for 30 minutes).
- Preheat Oven to 360°F and bake 28-30 min until the tops are deep golden (but not brown).
Notes
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
This is my 3rd time making this roll. This time dough was so sticky I had hard time rolling it out. I followed the recipe. What went wrong? I had to use some flour to roll it out and i think it changed the texture of the roll a little.
Hi Tanya, I wonder if it could be something as simple as mis-counting how much flour went in. I’ve sure done that before! Also, be sure you measure the flour correctly and this post should help with that.
The weather can also cause dough to be stickier at times.
The best recipe 😘making it again for easter 4th year in the row it became our easter tradition👍😘😘😘
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing that with me!
Rosemary’s recipe is good,thank you but from the photo I prefer the poppy seed filling to occupy most of the internal space with very little dough inside the casing. How is this achieved?
Hi Henry, we found this to be the right balance to maintain the fluffiness of the dough. I imagine one with considerably more poppyseeds would be more dense.
Is this rolled up from the long side??
Hi Rosemary, yes we rolled this from the long side.
Hello,
Thank you for posting the recipe which I suspect is very similar to the one that I grew up loving.
My polish grandmother had a bakery in the 30’s. Using a recipe from the bakery, Mom made poppy seed and nut rolls often. It was a big production as she hung temporary curtains over the kitchen doorway to maintain a high temperature in the room. It was always a festive affair. My job was to grind the poppy seed and nuts.
A bit of trivia: Mom referred to the process of heating and soaking the poppy seed in water as “debittering the poppy seed.”
Now that I am nearing retirement,
I need to dig her many recipe boxes out of storage and go through them. Just today a coworker asked if I have a recipe for Polish Chrusiki, which I know I do.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Brian! I hope you find some treasured recipes in her recipe box!
Hi! I’m going to use this wonderful recipe, and I was wondering if I can substitute active dry yeast, with fresh yeast. I’ll be making this recipe tomorrow, and I’m very excited! Thank you
Hi David, I honestly don’t work with fresh yeast in my kitchen so I haven’t tested this with fresh, but here is a helpful yeast article from King Arthur Flour company that might help with conversion.
Natasha, can i mix walnuts with poppy seed or make with just grinded walnuts? I remember my grandma making with walnuts.
Hi Gina, I haven’t made a walnut roulette, but I imagine it would taste good with some walnuts mixed into this poppy seed filling.
Natasha, i made one roll with walnuts ( grinded and mixed with condensed milk). It came out veery delicious! My family loved it and said thank you to you!!)
That’s so great!
Hi Natasha, my dough was raised 4 Times in volume in under an hour. Should I go ahead and go to next step or wait a total of 2.5 to rise anyway?
Hi Marina, If it’s 3-4 times in volume, it should be good to use.
Hi Natasha,
I have made this recipe numerous times and it’s amazing! I wanted to ask if you could share a non condensed milk version of the poppy seed mixture? Although I think this is the best method yet… I don’t always want to use up my condensed milk especially if I’m doing a double or triple portion. Thanks for all your awesome recipes!
Hi Marina, Some of our readers have used canned poppy seed. One reader writes “The brand is SOLO (I’m sure there are others). It’s very good and you don’t need to add condensed milk it’s already very sweet”. Honestly, haven’t tried any other substitution so it is difficult to say. Hope this helps.
What is the wax paper for? I use parchment for baking. This is my second attempt
Oh my goodness, you’re right! That should be parchment paper. We used to use wax paper but now almost exclusively use parchment for everything we can use it on. It’s a wonderful surface and safer in the oven than wax paper.
My Polish grandmother used to make this and ground her own poppy seeds. My mother also made it from my grandmother’s recipe but used the canned poppy seed. It works but it is sweeter than the homemade variety. We used to call it bulki and made it with various fillings: poppy seed (my favorite), cinammon, sugar, ground nut and apricot.
Yum, I bet that tastes delicious! Thanks for sharing Ann!
My family loves this bread. They always said better the Babushka !
I’m happy to hear the whole family enjoys the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review Dora!
Worked really well! The recipe was very clear and easy to follow. I think grinding the poppy seeds fine is essential, otherwise they come out kind of gritty. Also, make sure your trays are in the center of the oven, as the buns tend to blacken on the bottom if set too low.
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Kavitha! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
So is it 6 cups of flour total?? The recipe says 4 cups of Canadian flour then later is the description says “add an additional 2 cups” of flour. My dough is becoming flaky now! Ugh
Hi Lana, I put that in parenthesis to clarify the instructions before it, but I can see how: “add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time (add an additional 2 cups)” can be misread to mean an additional 2 cups of flour. I clarified that step to read: “add the remaining 2 cups of the flour 1/2 cup at a time.” So sorry for the confusion :(. The 4 cups of flour in the ingredients list is correct.
Hello! What wast the brand of canadian flour and where can i find it? Tried to scroll through the comments to see id anyone else was wondering the same thing and couldn’t find anything. Thanks!
Hi Olga, we have been able to find flour made in Canada in Winco and Cash and Carry (a restaurant supply store). It isn’t available everywhere and online it can get spendy. I think I need to re-do this recipe with regular all-purpose flour as well. It still works with regular all-purpose, it just requires a little more flour. Canadian flour has more gluten so it requires a little less flour for most recipes.
I am new to your site. I will try out your Poppy seed rolls, they look so scrumptious. However, can I substitute almond milk and stevia for sweetener instead of sweetened condensed milk.If you have any other suggestions to circumvent this problem I would love to hear from you. My husband has dairy allergies and I cannot use pure mild products. Thank you very much for your input.
Hi Hanne, I honestly haven’t tried that substitution so it is difficult to say. I worry that the almond milk might be too think and would result in a dry mixture. I did come across (during some quick research), an article on making dairy free condensed milk at home. There is a video tutorial here. It looks like this type of mixture might work. I sure hope that helps!
Thank you, Natasha, you have just given me the opportunity to expand my culinary know how. I never even thought about turning coconut milk into condensed milk, and yet I have used any of the dairy free ‘milk’ products in my cooking, except soya ,(hubby just won’t go for it). I’ll be sure to give it a try asap and thanks again for your prompt advice. hugs from your newest fan.
My pleasure, please let me know how it turns out!
Thank you for sharing this recipe,however I prefer to have the whole centre filled with the poppyseed mixture so that it will not be dry.What modifications to the ingredients and technique need to be made for this?
Hi Henry, overfilling can also weigh down the soft dough. To ensure it is moist, it is important not to overbake. Also the filling its fairly moist here with the condensed milk mixed in. I haven’t tested it specifically with more filling so I am not able to provide instructions.
This is my second time making these, and both times they turned out super flat/thin after cutting in and after taking them out from oven. while they rise in room them they look really good. what could be the reason? I use canada flour fyi,
HI Inna, I wonder if maybe your oven was too hot while the dough was proofing. If it goes above 100˚F, you can deactivate your yeast and start cooking it. Also, are you certain your yeast was fresh and not expired? I hope that helps!
I was asked to make some Ukranian food for a couple of missionaries who were homesick and missing their home food. This website has been so helpful when trying to make food items I haven’t even tasted. The photos are so good for a reference. I will be dropping them off tonight. Wish I could see their faces, but it is a surprise for a party tomorrow. By the way, I used my Blendtec with the twister jar to grind the poppy seeds and it worked really well. Took less than a minute to do them.
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Lori! I hope it brings comfort to the missionaries. Thanks for sharing your wonderful review!
Thank you so much for your recipe! This is my second Christmas season making the recipe. They are fabulous. I make them a few weeks before Christmas, so I freeze them and they keep so well. They taste exactly the same as the day I made them.
You’re welcome Molly! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for sharing your excellent review with other readers!
Do you freeze them whole or in slices? Making them for the first time this afternoon,
Hi…I have to ask….do you really mix the dough for 15 minutes after the flour is added….?? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take that long for it to leave the sides of the bowl. I’m also wondering if I could grind the poppy seeds, and then add the milk and some water….skipping the soaking?
Hi Yvonne, I do mix it that long with the dough hook attachment. The kneading creates a very soft dough in the end product. I haven’t found a better process than soaking the seeds first to produce the same results with the seeds. They don’t grind well if they are dry.