Bobáľky: Slovak yeast dough bites with poppy seeds

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

1. Let all the ingredients come to room temperature beforehand. For the starter, crumble the yeast and mash it with part of the sugar into a paste. Add about a tablespoon of flour and roughly 100 ml of lukewarm milk, stir well, cover, and let it rise in a warm place for about 5 minutes, until it starts to bubble.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the salt and the remaining sugar. Add the starter, the lukewarm milk with the beaten egg and, finally, the melted butter or shortening. Knead the dough until it no longer sticks to the bowl, then dust it with flour, cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume.

   While it rises, work it through a few times with a wooden spoon so that more air gets to the yeast.

3. Shape the risen dough into a log, cut it into pieces and roll them into thinner ropes. Cut the ropes into pieces about 1.5 cm long; they will grow a little more during baking. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 1 cm apart so they do not stick together, and do not brush them with fat. This batch fills two baking sheets; let the pieces rise briefly before baking.

4. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 °C (350 °F). When they start to brown on top, lower the temperature to about 160 °C (325 °F) and finish baking. Baking takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Pour warm milk or boiled water over the cooled bobáľky, but only enough so that they do not get too soggy and turn mushy. Sprinkle them with ground poppy seeds and powdered sugar and drizzle with melted butter.

Tip: Mix the poppy seeds with the powdered sugar beforehand so the topping spreads evenly. Pour the milk over the bobáľky only just before serving, as they would go soft if left to stand.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Bobáľky z kysnutého cesta ako od babičky