Mákos Guba
Poppy seed bread pudding- Yield
- Serves 6
- Active
- 15 minutes
- Total
- 35 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
The story
Few dishes illustrate the old Central European logic of “nothing goes to waste” as neatly as mákos guba, cubes of stale bread soaked in warm milk and sprinkled with poppy seeds and sugar. It arose as a way to turn the previous day's stale bread into a dessert worthy of the holiday table. In Hungarian cooking poppy seeds are regarded as a symbol of prosperity and fertility, the same belief that lies behind poppy seed bejgli, so mákos guba carries the same symbolic message in a simpler, more everyday form. The dish is traditionally served warm, right after the bread has soaked long enough to soften but before it turns to mush. Some families also add vanilla or a little rum to the milk for a deeper flavor. For Hungarian families in the diaspora, mákos guba is one of the thriftiest and quickest recipes to pull together when time is short between work and Christmas Eve dinner, and it is almost always the children's favorite of all the holiday desserts.
Ingredients
- 6 cups cubed stale bread (challah-style or brioche works well)
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup poppy seeds, ground
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- Extra sugar, for serving
Buy poppy seeds in bulk online or at Eastern European delis rather than in small spice-aisle jars, and grind them in a clean coffee or spice grinder just before using.
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F and butter a baking dish.
- Warm the milk with the sugar and vanilla until just steaming.
- Place the bread cubes in the baking dish and pour the warm milk evenly over them; let sit 10 minutes to absorb.
- Drizzle with the melted butter and sprinkle the ground poppy seeds evenly over the top.
- Bake 20–25 minutes, until the top is set and lightly golden and the bread has softened into a pudding-like texture.
- Serve warm, with a little extra sugar sprinkled over.