Kūčiukai Recipe (Lithuanian Poppy Seed Christmas Cookies)
Poppy Seed Kūčiukai (Lithuanian Christmas Eve Bites)
These little poppy seed bites are made from a soft, lightly sweet yeast dough and baked until golden and crunchy. They’re a Lithuanian Christmas Eve tradition. They keep for weeks in a tin, and once they’ve dried a little you can pour poppy seed milk over them and they won’t go soggy.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Prep the flour. Add 3 cups of flour. Set aside 1 cup
- Warm the milk. Heat the milk gently until it feels lukewarm on your wrist, about 100°F. If it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.
- Activate the yeast. For active dry yeast, mix it with sugar (or honey) and add in the warm milk, then wait 5–10 minutes until it foams. For instant yeast, just stir it into all of the milk.
- Make a sponge. Stir in a little under half of the flour with the yeast mixture. You’ll get a thick, sticky batter that’s too soft to knead. Cover it with a towel and let it rest somewhere warm for 30 minutes.
- Knead. Add the remaining flour and the poppy seeds and bring everything together into a dough. Knead for at least 5 minutes, until it’s smooth and slightly glossy and doesn’t stick to your hands. If it’s too tacky, add a little more flour, one spoonful at a time.
- Let it rise. Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm until it has doubled, about 1 to 1½ hours.
- Preheat and prep. Heat the oven to 380°F and lightly oil your baking sheets.
- Shape. Punch the dough down. Working with small pieces, roll thin ropes about as thick as a finger, then cut them into ½-inch pieces. Spread them out on the pans so they aren’t touching.
- Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until golden. Start checking at 8 minutes if your bites are small.
- Cool and dry. Let them cool completely. For extra crunch, leave them out uncovered overnight, then store them in an airtight tin or jar.
Serving: Traditionally they’re served with poppy seed milk (aguonų pienas) poured over them just before eating. They’re just as good as a crunchy snack on their own.
Rising Time: Traditionally this is made during winter. If it's too cold in the home and find that it's difficult for the dough to start rising try placing the bowl (covered with a towel) in the turned off oven. On the bottom add in a baking pan full of hot water from the kettle. This will keep the dough moist and speed up the rising process.
