Homemade Poppy Seed Filling

Name: Homemade Poppy Seed Filling
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 8 oz. poppy seeds (about 1 1/2 cups); 1 cup whole milk; 1/4 cup (or 4 Tablespoons) butter; 3/4 – 1 cup sugar; 1 pinch of salt; 2 eggs, beaten

69 comments
December 13, 2023
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Homemade poppy seed filling is actually simple to make and is so much better than store bought. The texture and flavor is superior in every way.

In our Soviet culture, we bake with poppy seeds a lot, so making homemade poppy seed filling makes sense. I was really surprised how easy it is to make yourself with this simple method. Since poppy seed filling isn’t always available in stores, sometimes I have no choice but to make it at home. Often even if you can find it, it doesn’t taste very fresh because not a lot of people bake with it.

The homemade version is perfectly creamy, very easy to work with and spread out in your baking and tastes so good. It’s wonderful to use it in pastries, yeast breads and cookies. My favorite are Poppy Seed Rugelach and Poppy Seed Rolls. You can also be make it in advance and store it in your refrigerator. It even freezes perfectly for longer storage. Your baking will taste so much better when you use homemade poppy seed filling.

Ingredients:

(Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the printable recipe with measurements.)

poppy seeds
- I like to buy poppy seeds in bulk. They are much more budget friendly and taste much fresher than the tiny spice bottles in most grocery stores. You can look in your local bulk food stores or order them online like I do. (I have ordered them from nuts.com for many years.)
whole milk
- I recommend using whole milk because it will have a richer, creamier texture than reduced fat or skim milk.
- You can most likely use other milk options instead of cow’s milk, but I haven’t personally tried it.
butter
granulated sugar
salt
egg yolks
- egg yolks will help thicken up the custard for the poppy seed filling. Using only egg yolks not the egg whites is important because the egg whites is the part that makes things taste “eggy”

The Best Way to Prep the Poppy Seeds

You do need a coffee grinder for this recipe. Trust me, I tried it in the food processor, blender, mashing it by hand, grinding it with my teeth (just kidding). It just doesn’t work. The seeds are too tiny for anything besides a coffee grinder. I have heard that others use a meat grinder for this, but I haven’t tried that.

whole poppy seeds and ground poppy seeds for baking and to make poppy seed filling

Here’s the coffee grinder that we have now (it’s currently not available on Amazon, but here’s the one that we had before that you can purchase now. We used it for years and it worked really well for this too. (I also use it once in a while to grind spices.)

How To Make Homemade Poppy Seed Filling

Use a coffee grinder to process the poppy seeds.
- You will need to do this in several batches.
Meanwhile heat the milk, butter, salt and sugar on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the milk is frothy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Take some of the hot milk mixture and slowly pour in a some of it into the egg yolks, whisking the whole time.
- This is called tempering, which prevents the eggs from scrambling.
- When you’ve added about half of the milk to the eggs, pour the tempered mixture back into the saucepan, whisking to combine.
Cook on medium-low heat until the mixture thickens, just like making pudding. It should thicken up.
Add the poppy seeds and mix to combine.
- The filling will look thin, but don’t worry, it will thicken up as it cools. Pour the filling into a glass mason jar or a storage container. Cool, then store the filling in the refrigerator, for about a week, or freeze for up to 3 months.

How to make poppy seed filling tutorial.

Poppy Seed Filling Recipes