Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies are traditional Old World spiraled cookies with a delicious poppy seed filling.
Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This is one of those cookies I made because I found it attractive and because Bill likes these type of eastern and northern European types of cookies. as well as hamantaschen and kringla. There was a greater amount of these up in Wisconsin where he was raised. Most of my experience growing up in St. Louis had been with poppyseed in muffins and quick breads, of which I am very fond.
Early on before the season started, I had wanted to make a Polish Makowiec since we had tried some from the market and Bill loved them. But they were a bit pricey and I wasn’t happy that they didn’t come in fresh (only frozen defrosted). But like many things, I didn’t get around to it before my calendar for recipes started filling up fast. So it really was reduced to just a batch of cookies.
I did use the canned filling in this for convenience sake. Although I would probably prefer making it from scratch if you can. There are recipes around for that if you need them.
I hope you enjoy these as well as the other cookies offered up in the continuing 12 Days of #ChristmasCookies. Tomorrow I will be posting my version of the Starbucks classic morphed into a cookie: the Chestnut Praline Latte Cookie. Over the weekend I will be posting cookie recipes for Turtle Chocolate Chip Cookies (Saturday) and Cherry-Pistachio Icebox Cookies (on Sunday) and Eggnog Snickerdoodles for the final day of this event on Monday. I hope that you check back with the group each and every day! Until tomorrow-
~Sue
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker
Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies
- Yield: 3 dozen
- Note: Additional prep time for chilling is required
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 cup canned poppy seed filling
- sifted powdered sugar (optional, for sprinkling after baking)
Method:
- Cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer.
- Add lemon extract and egg.
- Sift together flour, baking soda and cloves; add gradually to mixer and mix until smooth.
- Cut out a 12″x10″ piece of wax paper and roll out dough to fill the entire space.
- Place sheet with dough on a baking sheet and refrigerate a half hour until firm.
- Remove dough sheet from fridge and spread the poppy seed filling over the dough (leaving edges without the filling).
- Using the paper to coax the dough to start rolling over, roll dough to form a 12 inch log, pinching the seams closed. Then wrap in extra wax paper if needed and refrigerate again until firm.
- While waiting, preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment.
- Unroll dough and cut off wafers 1/3″ wide and place on the parchment. Being cold, they should stay round with minimal handling. If the cookies start to distort while cutting them, wrap it back up and chill more, baking off the ones you have.
- Bake the cut cookies for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges. Cool five minutes on the pan, then slide the parchment sheet onto your rack to finish cooling.
- Dust lightly with powdered sugar if desired and store between sheets of wax paper because they will tend to stick together if you don’t keep them separated. If packing for shipment, wrap them individually in plastic wrap.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Day 8
- Almond Butter Cookies from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
- Eggnog Hugs from Making the Most of Naptime
- Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies from Palatable Pastime
- Kourambiedes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Melting Moments from Cooking With Carlee
- Muddy Snowballs from Family Around the Table
- Raspberry Coconut Cookies from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
I love poppyseed roll I need to try these!
I didn’t visit Hungary during my world tour this event. These are going on my to try list.
They are so pretty! I have been tempted by the can of poppyseed filling, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. Now I am!
I love anything with poppyseed. This looks wonderful.
I made the poppyseed cookies with homemade poppyseed filling; really good,
Glad you enjoyed!