When I stumbled over Selina’s poppyseed-filled dumplings on her delicious blog Krümelkreationen the other day, I knew I had to give them a go: lightly sweetened yeast dumplings, filled with ground poppy seeds and drowned in custard … my idea of paradise. You might have noticed that I have a soft spot for Austrian food, especially sweet dishes. Personally I blame this sweet tooth on genes: parts of my family, after all, had been exiled from Salzburg in the 18th Century as part of a sectarian cleansing: 8 days were given to poor Protestants to get themselves organised and leave the country, those owning land had up to three months to sell their possessions. Most of them left for Prussia, the Netherlands and America, were they were welcome. My ancestors settled in a rocky wasteland in Württemberg, a place so desperate nobody else had laid claim on it before. Why did they have to leave, you might wonder? Well, whatever the official explanation, I’d argue it was down to irreconcilable differences. After all, I personally think that the main distinction between Catholics and Protestants is their attitude to pleasure: if it doesn’t hurt, a Protestant will assume that it’s a sin and immediately stop doing what they’re doing. Just in case. Catholics, on the other hand. will enjoy themselves but might confess afterwards that they had, well, been enjoying themselves. Just in case. My Austrian ancestors obviously came from the spoilsport side, and I can – to a certain degree! – empathise with their former neighbours for having them expelled. Imagine that  every time you want to tuck into a thick slice of strudel, or a dumpling, someone right beside you starts moaning about refined sugars, calories, the potential suffering of the potentially caged hens whose eggs were used … you name it. And the insane amount of butter… No wonder it wasn’t working. Once they were gone, the good people of Salzburg could finally enjoy themselves, for example by having the most covetable of all Austrian meals, the ‘sweet meal’. No need for a healthy main dish to justify the gluttony of a dessert, in Austria it is acceptable to have a sweet main dish. Saves you having to make up your mind about choosing a dessert, I suppose. After this quick overview of European history, I present you Buchteln: feel free to halve the recipe and have it as a desert, after a large portion of greens! I filled mine with poppy seeds simply because I had made double the amount of filling necessary when making my poppy buns the other day: it keeps in the fridge for a few days or you can easily freeze the mix. Buchteln are equally popular filled with plum or apricot jam, or even without any filling.This dish is, ultimately, a lighter, fluffier version of my buns and is best served with freshly made custard. Enjoy! You can always feel guilty afterwards …

Mohnbuchteln – Poppy Dumplings (makes 12, serving 6 as a main dish)

For the dumplings:

• 500 g plain flour
• 1 tsp dried active yeast
• 200-220 ml lukewarm milk
• 80g unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla sugar
• 2 eggs

For the filling:

• 100g poppy seeds, ground or pounded
• 100g sugar
• 150ml milk
• 1 egg
• 2cl rum

For baking and serving:

• 150g unsalted butter, melted
• 40g icing sugar
• 1 potion of custard

Begin by sieving the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Make an indentation in the middle and add the dried yeast, a pinch of the sugar and the slightly warmed milk. Mix and leave to stand until little bubbles are forming on the surface of the milky puddle. Add the remaining ingredients and knead until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. Adjust the amount of milk to suit your flour. Cover and leave to rest until the dough has doubled in size. I left it in the cold oven and it took a good hour and a half. In the meantime, mix the ground poppy seeds in a small casserole with the sugar and milk and bring it to boil. Once it is bubbling nicely, remove it from the heat and let it cool down a bit. Add the egg and rum when the mix is lukewarm. Grease an ovenproof form with some of the melted butter, keeping the rest for later. Roll out the dough to a square of ca. 60cm x 40 cm or 25in x 15in. Cut this into 12 even squares and place a spoonful of the poppy mix into the centre of each square. Fold them up individually, close the opening carefully and place them, pretty side up, into the dish.  Pour the remaining butter over the dumplings to ensure they can be separated easily when you serve them. Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F while the dumplings rest, covered, for another 30 minutes. Place the dish in the oven and bake the dumplings for 25-30 minutes or until golden at the top. While they’re baking you can prepare your custard. Serve the Buchteln with a light cover of icing sugar and absolutely smothered in custard – you’re already sinning, so what the heck? Disclaimer: my views on Christianity and European history are highly inaccurate and outright questionable and should therefore be taken with a large pinch of salt. Or sugar, actually.