One of the last entries from the Baked Goods chapter, 17-10: Poppy Seed Bread is essentially white bread with a sprinkling of poppy seeds on top. Simply Delicious shows it as a loaf, but I chose to make it into rolls/buns–since you’re already topping the bread with seeds, it makes it very reminiscent of sesame seed hamburger buns. 🍔
Even 20+ years later, most mentions of poppy seeds inevitably end up referencing this Seinfeld gag, where Elaine’s love for poppy seed muffins keep causing her to test positive for opium on a work-administered drug test.
This often leads to the question: Can poppy seeds really affect a drug test? And the answer, according to the New York Times, is actually “Yes!” 🤔 You’d have to eat a LOT of them (much more than what the recipe for this bread contains) to have it show up at levels that would cause alarm–but the claim does actually have merit.
If the idea of potential poppy-seed-related consequences doesn’t sit well with you (or maybe you just don’t like picking them out of your teeth), Simply Delicious offers substitutions for covering the bread including sesame seeds, anise, cumin, or even grated cheese.
Or don’t coat it with anything and just make a plain white loaf of bread. Your call.
Ingredients. Bought my poppy seeds from a local supermarket’s bulk bins, and stored them in an old (clean) capers jar.
Yet another picture of butter melting.
Milk temperature–close enough.
Adding flour into the yeast/milk mixture.
Worked all the flour in and rolled up into a dough ball.
After rising. You can see the difference in size between the picture above and this one.
Chopped it up into portions instead of making one big loaf–like I mentioned in the intro, I’m making these into buns instead. Sesame seeds would have been good for these too–very similar to a fast food hamburger bun.
All rolled up. Using the Silpat instead of parchment–either works.
Sprinkled with poppy seeds–I’ll take my chances.
After baking. They look pretty good–maybe a bit too much lift on a few, but most came out nice and round.
Slice this guy in half horizontally and you have a nice bun there. I gave away a few, froze a few, and made hamburgers that night for the rest.
Grade: A
