Mohnpielen

Mohnpielen is a sweet dish of poppy seeds and bread softened with milk. In German, “Mohn” means poppy. White bread and black poppy seeds are layered in a dish and left until they come together well, then spooned out. It is a familiar dish on Christmas tables associated with Silesia.

Soaking Bread in Poppy-Seed Milk

In the Tischer family’s method, featured by a German broadcaster, sugar and milk are warmed, and ground poppy seeds are stirred in and left to swell. Day-old bread rolls are cut into slices about a finger thick and layered in a dish, alternating with the poppy-seed milk, and then chilled. The slightly dry bread absorbs the liquid and softens, while the fine poppy seeds add texture and aroma. Rum-soaked raisins are sometimes added, but this family also enjoys the simple flavor without them.

In Silesia, it is also called “Mohnklöße.” Klöße means dumplings, but this family’s dish is not a dumpling that is rolled into balls and boiled; it is a sweet that is layered in a dish and left to rest. It takes on the shape of the dish, and when it is portioned out, a pattern of white bread and poppy seeds appears.

The Silesian Table in Two Languages

In Polish, a similar dish is called makówki. Makówki, presented by the Polish Ministry of Agriculture as a traditional food of the Silesian Voivodeship, is made with white bread or sweet yeast dough, poppy seeds, milk and dried fruit, and its cross-section shows a mottled pattern of white bread. In some methods, the bread is soaked in liquid and layered with poppy seeds, and raisins or almonds are scattered over it.

The similarly named makiełki also varies from place to place. Tourism material from the Dąbrowa Basin presents a Christmas Eve example in which poppy seeds are combined with honey, nuts and raisins and mixed with boiled noodles rather than bread. Even when the names are similar, there are bread dishes layered in a dish and dishes mixed with noodles, and there is no single way to make them.

The Tischer family, which has roots in Silesia, serves Mohnklöße on the Christmas Eve table even in Franconia, where the family now lives. This sweet of poppy seeds and bread carries the family’s inherited memories of a homeland and its celebrations.

Glossary