Poppy Flower

Dough:

1. Put the flour in a larger bowl and make a well in the middle with a tablespoon. Crumble the yeast into it. Scatter sugar all around on the edge of the flour and pour 1 teaspoon of it over the yeast crumbs. Pour the lukewarm milk over the yeast and stir until it has dissolved. Cover the bowl and let the yeast mixture rise until it forms bubbles (may take 15-20 minutes).
2. Then add the remaining ingredients and knead everything with the dough hook of the hand mixer to form a smooth dough. Finally, rework a little with your hands and put the well-covered bowl with the dough in a warm place (oven without convection at 35 °) to rise. Dough volume should have at least doubled. (Can take 30-40 minutes)

Poppy seed filling:

1. In the meantime, bring the water to the boil with initially 60 g sugar. Sprinkle in the ground poppy seeds and bring to the boil. Remove from heat, stir in breadcrumbs and let rest.
2. Using the milk, the remaining 30 g sugar and the pudding powder, cook a pudding according to the instructions on the packet. Then stir it into the poppy seed mixture while it is still hot.
3. Peel and core the pear and cut into small cubes. Add to the poppy seeds together with the cranberries, salt, vanilla pulp and the orange and lemon zest and mix everything well. Let the mixture cool down.

Completion:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 °. Place baking paper on a baking sheet.
2. Take the risen dough out of the bowl and knead again a little by hand. Cut into 4 equal parts and form a ball out of each. Now roll out each ball on a floured surface into a circle with a diameter of 26 cm. Place the first base in the middle of the tray and spread 1/3 of the poppy seed mixture. If this has become a little too firm after cooling, stir in a little cream so that it becomes more spreadable.
3. Place the 2nd dough base on top of the poppy seed mixture, brush it with the 2nd third of the poppy seed mixture and cover with the 3rd base. This is now coated with the rest of the poppy seed mixture and covered with the 4th floor. At the edges everything should fit on top of each other.
4. Now press a form with a diameter of 8-10 cm in the middle and cut through the cake 8 x in a radial pattern up to the outer edge. Cut the resulting 8 “pieces” again in the middle. But NOT to the outer edge. Then always lift a little bit, pull the gap slightly apart and pull the two upper corners (first the left, then the right) as if through a loop and join them in the middle. This creates a point and it looks like a large petal.
5. When all 8 pieces are turned like this, remove the shape in the middle. Peel and core the pear and decorate the center with it. Spread the pistachios and bake the cake on the middle rack for 30 – 40 minutes. It should be golden brown in color and no more dough will stick to the wooden stick sample. Let cool down on a wire rack.

Molding:

1. Mix the powdered sugar with enough lemon juice to create a glaze that is not too liquid. Brush the cake, which is still lukewarm, with it.
2. This cake looks very elaborate, but it isn’t. Cutting and turning the loops is straightforward because the dough is very elastic. It was worth it to bake this cake from the confectioner Angelika Schwalber – albeit a little bit changed by me. It is super soft, juicy and fruity …… and also has “optics” …………..