Hungary · 60 min · Vegetarian · Dessert · For confident cooks
Mákos guba
In German: Mohn-Guba · In English: poppy seed guba
For 4 servings · US units
Stale kifli soaked in vanilla milk, baked with poppy seed and vanilla cream
Mákos guba is the Hungarian dessert for anyone who loves poppy seed: stale kifli (crescent rolls) are sliced, soaked in sweet vanilla milk, tossed generously with ground poppy seed and baked just long enough to hold together while staying juicy. In Hungary it turns up after a hearty soup or at the end of a light menu, always with warm vanilla cream poured over the top. It's just as good lukewarm as it is cold, and it quietly turns yesterday's dry kifli into a proper meal.
Ingredients
- 5stale, cut into slices about 1 cm thickHungarian crescent roll made from a plain yeast dough with a little milk and fat, soft and mild, not flaky like a croissant.Substitute: Soft milk rolls or plain white wheat rolls match the crumb and flavour well; a croissant is too buttery and flaky and falls apart when it has to be soaked.Read more
- 6⅓ ozground, tossed with the roll slicesThe tiny, oil-rich seeds of the opium poppy, blue-grey and nutty. Hungarian cooking mostly uses them freshly ground and in large quantities.Substitute: There is no real substitute; ground walnuts make a good filling, but a different dish without the characteristic earthy, slightly bitter poppy flavour.Read more
- 5⅛ cupsmilkabout 700 ml for soaking, the rest for the vanilla cream; one source uses plant milk
- 2¾ ozsugardissolved in the milk or mixed into the poppy seed
- ½ ozto flavour the milk; ground vanilla as an alternativeSugar flavoured with vanilla or vanillin, usually sold in small sachets.Substitute: For one sachet, use about a heaped teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, which makes little difference in doughs and creams. Extract is not suitable for dusting, because it makes the sugar damp. For that, leave scraped-out vanilla pods in a jar of sugar for a few days.Read more
- ⅔ ozbutterfor the dish and the cream; margarine in one source
- 1 tsplemongrated, added to the hot milk
- 1⅓ ozfor the vanilla sauce or topping creamCornflour flavoured with vanilla and usually tinted yellow, which sets into a pudding or cream when boiled with milk and sugar.Substitute: Custard powder swaps in directly, as does about 35 g of cornflour with vanilla seeds or extract per sachet, minus the yellow colour; American instant pudding mix does not work, because it sets differently and is already sweetened.Read more
- ⅔ ozcornstarchto thicken the milk or the yolk cream
- 2egglightly beaten, binds the soaked mixture before baking (optional)
- 6egg yolksfor a rich vanilla cream (optional)
- 2Applepeeled and coarsely grated, folded into the poppy seed mixture (optional)
- ¾ cupwhipping creamwhipped, for decorating (optional)
- 14⅛ ozjamtart red jam (strawberry, raspberry, currant, sour cherry), as a layer and coating (optional)
Method
- Slice the kifliCut the stale kifli into slices about 1 cm thick and tip them into a large bowl.
- Heat the flavoured milkBring roughly 700 ml of the milk to a boil with the sugar, vanilla sugar and grated lemon zest, melt the butter in it and stir in the starch if you like.
- Soak the kifli with poppy seedPour the hot to lukewarm milk over the kifli slices, add the ground poppy seed and mix thoroughly until every piece is soaked through. If you want, stir in the lightly beaten eggs now so the mixture binds as it bakes, or fold in the peeled, coarsely grated apple.
- Fill the baking dishSpoon the mixture into a buttered ovenproof dish and press it level.
- Bake the gubaBake at 340 °F for 20 to 30 minutes — the guba should stay moist inside rather than drying out.
- Cook the vanilla creamFor the vanilla cream, whisk the pudding powder — or the egg yolks with starch, sugar and vanilla — smooth in a little cold milk, pour in the remaining milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens.
- Plate and serveServe the guba in portions, pour the warm vanilla cream over the top and eat it warm or cold.
Tips and variations
The guba takes well to variation: for a dairy- and egg-free version, use rice drink, margarine and a vanilla sauce made with coconut milk, tinted yellow with a pinch of turmeric. As a no-bake cake, press the hot poppy seed and kifli mixture with grated apple into a springform tin, cover it with vanilla pudding, chill it and decorate with whipped cream and orange. It also works as a layered dessert set in half-sphere moulds — gelatine-set vanilla cream, jam thickened with pectin and guba — turned out and scattered with pomegranate seeds. To serve, a layer of tart red jam (strawberry, raspberry, currant or sour cherry) cuts nicely through the sweetness of the poppy seed.
Allergens
Contains: Milk (including lactose)
May contain if you use the optional ingredients: Eggs
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
