I'm rather proud of my first baigli, thanks to Shari's help because I am no baker.
It's an Austro-Hungarian recipe for which Pozsony (Bratislava) is famous, hence the name Pozsonyi mákos tekeres (Pozsony poppy seed roulade). All I know is that Mum used to make the roulades — two kinds, poppy seed filled and walnut filled — in quantity on festive occasions. Like Christmas.
Our neighbor, who learned the recipe from her Jewish mother-in-law, has been bringing over a couple of rolls the last few Christmases. Her baigli (she calls them something else) is excellent and it brings back chromosomal memories of growing up in Sydney.
This year, thinking about how we used to devour baigli at Christmas, I was inspired to make some myself. We shopped for the necessary poppy seed grinder and ended up buying a Czech-made device. The poppy seeds came from Caravan, our local Middle Eastern food market. Grind them little black-grey seeds and oh my, what flavor!
Of course, anything with as much butter and sugar as this dough can't possibly be other than delicious. With poppy seed or ground pecan fillings, each with a hint of lemon, I mean, how bad can that be?
