Kūčiukai

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gplain flour
• 7 ginstant yeast
• 200 mlwarm water
• 50 gsugar
• 50 mloil
• 1 tspsalt
• 3 tbsppoppy seeds

Poppy milk

• 200 gpoppy seeds
• 600 mlboiling water
• 80 gsugar or honey

To serve

• a deep bowl and a spoon

Directions

1. Make a firm dough with the flour, yeast, warm water, sugar, oil, salt and poppy seeds, and knead it 10 minutes.
2. Prove for an hour until doubled.
3. Roll the dough into long thin ropes about 1 cm thick.
4. Cut each rope across into pieces about 1 cm long, so you have small irregular nuggets.
5. Keep them small and keep them even. They should be roughly pea-sized, and large ones stay soft in the middle instead of drying hard.
6. Spread them well apart on lined trays.
7. Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 20 to 25 minutes, shaking the trays once or twice.
8. They are ready when hard, dry and pale gold right through.
9. They must be genuinely hard, like a small rusk. Soft kūčiukai dissolve into porridge the moment the poppy milk goes on.
10. Cool them completely; they keep for weeks in a tin.
11. For the poppy milk, pour boiling water over the poppy seeds and leave them to soak for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
12. Drain them, then grind or blend them with fresh water until the liquid turns pale grey and milky.
13. The seeds must be soaked and then ground. Unground poppy seed gives you flavoured water and none of the body that makes it milk.
14. Strain through a fine cloth, squeezing hard, and sweeten with sugar or honey.
15. Chill it thoroughly, because it is poured on cold and warm poppy milk softens the biscuits far faster.
16. To serve, put the kūčiukai in a bowl and pour the cold poppy milk over them at the table.
17. Pour it on at the last moment. They soften within minutes and are meant to be eaten while they still have some bite.
18. They are eaten on Kūčios, Christmas Eve, as one of the twelve meatless dishes of that supper, and they are the one everybody remembers.

Technique

• The twelve dishes represent the twelve apostles and the meal is eaten after the first star appears.
• Ready-made kūčiukai are sold in every Lithuanian shop from late November.
• Poppy milk is also drunk on its own during the meal.

Substitutions

• Shop-bought kūčiukai, which most households now buy.
• Almond or oat milk sweetened with honey, if you cannot face grinding poppy seed.

Variations

• With cranberry kisielius poured over instead of poppy milk.
• Made slightly larger and eaten dry as a snack.
• With honey stirred into the poppy milk rather than sugar.

History

Eaten at Kūčios, the Lithuanian Christmas Eve supper of twelve meatless dishes.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kūčiukai?

Kūčiukai is a snack from Lithuania: small hard poppy seed biscuits soaked in poppy milk on Christmas Eve. Eaten at Kūčios, the Lithuanian Christmas Eve supper of twelve meatless dishes.

How long does Kūčiukai take to make?

Kūčiukai takes 30 min plus 1 hr rising of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 200 small pieces. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kūčiukai?

Yes, within limits. Shop-bought kūčiukai, which most households now buy. Almond or oat milk sweetened with honey, if you cannot face grinding poppy seed.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kūčiukai?

Keep them small and keep them even. They should be roughly pea-sized, and large ones stay soft in the middle instead of drying hard.