Mohnzelten

Mohnzelten is a flat baked pastry made in the Waldviertel in northern Austria, in which a poppy seed filling is wrapped in a potato dough. A rich filling made from ground poppy seeds is wrapped in the dough, which is then flattened, and both sides are browned.

Unlike a crust made only with flour and butter, the dough worked with potato is soft and envelops a filling packed with poppy seeds. It was a portable food for people working on farms, as well as a festive food for occasions such as Christmas Eve.

The cross-section shows the dark poppy seed filling wrapped in a thin crust. Photo: Priwo, 2008, location unknown. Released into the public domain by the author; unedited.

Wrapping poppy seed filling in a dough worked with potato

The dough is made by finely grating potatoes that have been boiled and cooled and combining them with flour, butter, eggs, cream and the like. Some methods use sour cream and egg yolks, others use whole eggs, and some formulations add baking powder. Mixing in the potato without leaving large chunks allows the dough to be spread thin enough to wrap the filling.

Mohn means poppy seed. For the filling, ground poppy seeds are combined with sugar and melted butter and flavored with rum, cinnamon and vanilla. Some versions also add honey or jam. Rather than a few seeds scattered on the surface, the defining feature is the generous use of the poppy seeds themselves as the main ingredient of the filling. Another method is to mix the seeds and sugar into warmed butter and let the mixture cool before use.

The filling is placed on a round of dough, the edges are gathered and sealed, and it is pressed into a disc. The surface is pricked or patterned with a fork, and it is turned over partway through baking. In this step, both sides of the dough wrapped around the thick filling are baked until toasty.

A demonstration of shaping the dough at an event in front of Vienna City Hall. Photo: Haeferl, 2018. CC BY-SA 3.0, unedited.

A name meaning a flat cake, and the stamp on the bottom

The word Zelten derives from a word for a flat cake. In Austria, the name is used for cakes with fruit or seeds mixed in or wrapped inside, and it can also refer to fruit bread. Mohnzelten, with “Mohn” added, refers to Zelten made with poppy seeds.

Some makers stamp “IHS,” which represents Christ, on the bottom. It is used less to indicate a ritual specific to this pastry than as a mark that recalls the old way of making it.

Medieval poppy cultivation and the later arrival of the potato

Poppies in the Waldviertel appear in 13th-century records of land rents and tithes, and the 1280 land register of Zwettl Abbey is cited as one example. Poppies were also used for oil, and the region was known for producing gray poppy. The gray poppy seeds of the Waldviertel are characterized by a thin seed coat and a mild, nut-like flavor. A harvesting method of shaking the seeds out through holes that open in the ripe seed pods has also been handed down.

However, this land register is a record of poppy cultivation, not a record of a recipe (ingredient proportions and method) for the pastry. Poppy cultivation has continued since the Middle Ages, but the present-day recipe, with potato worked into the dough, came about much later.

The potato came to Europe from South America at a later time. An explanation by Austria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry indicates that potatoes were cultivated at monasteries in what is now Lower Austria in the 17th century and that their cultivation was encouraged in the Waldviertel in the 18th century. Whereas poppies were already growing in medieval fields, the present-day form, which uses potato in the dough, emerged after the potato’s introduction and the spread of its cultivation. The exact year potato was first used in the dough has not been recorded.

From farmers’ portable food to markets and Christmas shop displays

Made with local poppy seeds and potatoes, Mohnzelten was served at the table on festive days, while also being food taken along for logging in the forest or for work in the fields.

After the Second World War, labor-intensive poppy cultivation declined, but from around 1980 it was revived through regional initiatives. Today Mohnzelten is also made at markets and bakeries, and it appears in shops especially during the Christmas season.

Mohnzelten on display at the poppy festival in Armschlag. Photo: Karl Gruber, 2014. CC BY-SA 4.0, unedited.

Glossary