A popular Hungarian dessert, poppy seed meringue bars. Sweet, crumbly base, rich poppy seed filling and meringue on the top. Perfection!

Poppy seed desserts are very popular in Hungary. We don’t just use the whole seeds, we usually ground them and make a thick filling. My family especially loves poppy-seed things, and this is our favourite one.

This is kind of a traditional family recipe. My mother started to make this for my father’s birthday and now I bake these bars for any kind of event.

These bars are really really sweet and dense! Even I can eat only a small square. And that’s really something. But they are ohh so yummy. I think this could be a perfect dessert on Christmas day.

Actually it’s so easy to make. You only have to bake for 20 minutes all together. This is a smaller batch but you can easily double the recipe.

Sweet base, cooked lemony poppyseed filling and meringue on the top which is crispy outside but soft and chewy inside.

Poppy Seed Meringue Bar

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Prep Time: 15 min. Baking Time: 20 min. Total Time: 2 hours Portion: 16 squares

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Ingredients:

Base:

• 150g all purpose flour

• 100g butter

• 40g confectioner sugar

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 tablespoon sour cream (or natural/greek yogurt)

• ¼ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar or vanilla extract

Poppy seed filling:

• 200g poppy seed (grounded)

• 125g caster sugar

• 1,5 dl or ½ and 1/8 cups milk

• ¼ teaspoon rum extract

• the zest of a half lemon

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites

• 250g confectioner sugar

Directions:

Base:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C. Line an 8x8 inches or 21x21 cm square baking pan with parchment paper.

2. In a microwave safe bowl melt the butter and let it cool for a minute.

3. Then add the egg yolk, both of the sugars and the sour cream. Mix them well together.

4. In a medium bowl mix the flour and baking powder together. Then stir in the wet ingredients with a fork until you get a bit crumbly base. Push the base into the baking pan evenly with a spatula.

5. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes and bake until it’s only half baked and still pale.

Filling:

1. While your base is in the oven. Put all of your filling ingredients into a medium sauce pan and heat it on a medium-low heat just until all the sugar is disolved. Stir it while you cook it.

2. After 10 minutes take your base out of the oven and evenly spread the filling on the top.

Meringue:

1. In a clean bowl of a standing mixure add the egg whites. (Make sure your bowl is really clean and not greasy at all and you don’t have any yolk in your whites.) Start on a low speed and beat your whites. Then turn it on a medium-high speed and whip them until they are fluffy and they form soft peeks.

2. Then start adding your sugar one tablespoon at a time. It’s good when it's really shinny and holds the shape of it.

3. Spread the meringue on top of the poppy seed filling. Then turn on your oven to 400F or 200C and bake it for another 8 minutes or until the meringue is lightly coloured and crunchy on the top.

4. Let it cool down completely before serving.

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