Kūčiukai
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Kūčiukai , prėskučiai or šližikai - is a traditional Lithuanian pastry on Christmas Eve , hence on Christmas . Kūčiukai are made from a yeast dough and poppy seeds . They are about the size of a thimble , quite hard, crispy and not very sweet in taste. If you make kūčiukai with baker's yeast , they are a little softer, depending on how well the dough has risen. The more yeast in the dough, the softer the pastry. Without yeast, the Christmas Eve pastries will be dry and hard. For this reason, the round balls with poppy seeds are put in poppy seed milk and eaten as a kind of soup on Christmas Eve. For the poppy seed milk you have to pour boiling water over the poppy seeds and let them stand overnight.
Kūčiukai have a very long shelf life. They are traditionally baked on December 24th or the day before. They will only be eaten on December 24th with or without poppy seed milk as a starter, but also as a dessert. Kūčiukai are also very popular as a snack in Lithuania in the weeks after Christmas.
literature
- Pranė Dundulienė: Lietuvių šventės: tradicijos, papročiai, apeigos , Mokslo ir enciklopedijų Leidybos centras 2005, ISBN 5420015579
- Juozas Kudirka: Kūčių stalas , 1989
