Poppy Seed Placok
Placok is the Galician word for a three-storey tray bake, and the poppy seed one is the best loved. The pastry is not what matters here — the poppy seeds are. Dry and simply milled they stay sandy; steeped in boiling water and ground twice they become the dense black filling the cake is baked for.
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Rest
- 1 h
- Total
- 2 h 25 min
- Servings
- 12
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 390 kcal
Ingredients
Shortcrust base
Poppy seed filling
Meringue
Makes: a 20×30 cm tray, 12 pieces
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Steep the poppy seeds
Cover them with boiling water by 2 cm and leave 40 minutes. Dry seeds do not grind — they shatter into shards that stay gritty in the baked cake.
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Step 2: Grind them twice
Drain through a fine sieve, press out the water and put them through a mincer twice or blitz them. The seeds should become a grey-black paste, not separate grains.
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Step 3: Make the base
Rub the cold butter into the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to crumbs, add the yolks and gather the dough quickly. Long kneading warms the butter and toughens shortcrust.
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Step 4: Blind-bake the base
Press the dough over the base of the tin, prick it and bake 15 minutes at 180 °C. A baked base will not go soggy under a wet filling.
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Step 5: Cook the filling
Heat the poppy paste with milk, sugar, butter and semolina for 7–8 minutes, stirring, until thick. The semolina takes up moisture; without it the filling runs under the meringue.
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Step 6: Spread the poppy layer
Spread the warm filling evenly over the baked base and add the zest. The layer should be firm and even, about 1.5 cm.
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Step 7: Whip the meringue
Beat the whites with lemon juice to soft peaks, then add the sugar a spoon at a time and whip to stiff, glossy peaks.
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Step 8: Finish baking
Swirl the meringue over the top and bake 25–30 minutes at 150 °C, until dry and cream-coloured. Cool completely in the tin — a hot placok will not cut.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Poppy seeds go rancid quickly as their oil oxidises. Buy small amounts and keep them in the fridge; seeds that smell bitter cannot be rescued.
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Tip
Meringue over a wet filling sometimes weeps beads of syrup. Spread it over a warm rather than hot layer and dry it at a low temperature.
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Variation
Instead of meringue, a layer of thinly sliced apples with cinnamon under a lid of grated shortcrust — that makes it an apple and poppy placok.
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Storage
Three days covered in the fridge. The meringue softens slowly, so the best day is the second, when the layers have married but the top still crackles.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 12 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 390 kcal | 4,680 kcal |
| Protein | 8 g | 96 g |
| Fat | 21 g | 252 g |
| Carbohydrates | 43 g | 516 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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