Kutia: Christmas Eve wheat berry dessert with poppy seeds, honey, nuts and dried fruit

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1. Soak the wheat berries

   12 hr

   Rinse the wheat berries, cover with cold water and soak overnight for at least 12 hours.

2. Cook the wheat berries

   1 hr 30 min

   Drain the wheat berries and add about 1 l of fresh water and a pinch of salt. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1–1.5 hours, until the grains are tender and some have split open. Drain and let cool.

3. Prepare the poppy seeds

   15 min

   Pour 200 ml of hot milk over the ground poppy seeds, stir and let stand for 15 minutes to absorb the milk.

4. Prepare the nuts and fruit

   10 min

   Coarsely chop the walnuts and almonds and toast them briefly in a dry skillet. Rinse the raisins and cut the dried apricots into small pieces.

5. Mix

   2 hr

   Stir the soaked poppy seeds, honey (warm it gently if it has solidified), walnuts, almonds, raisins, apricots and candied fruit into the cooled wheat berries. Refrigerate the kutia for at least 2 hours and serve cold in bowls.

Tip: You can cook the wheat berries a day ahead and refrigerate them. If the kutia is too thick, loosen it with a tablespoon of milk or cream.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Sladká kutia z pšeničných zŕn a maku: štedrovečerný dezert s medom, orechmi a sušeným ovocím