Pirozhki is a generic word for individual-sized baked or fried buns stuffed with a variety of fillings. Homemade pirozhki are great favorites of old and young alike. A common variety of pirozhki are baked stuffed buns made from yeast dough and often glazed with egg to produce the common golden colour.
They may contain sweet-based fillings such as stewed or fresh fruit (apples, cherries, apricots, chopped lemon, etc), jam, or cottage cheese; a vegetable filling (mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions and egg, cabbage); meat or fish; an oatmeal filling mixed with meat or giblets. The buns may be plain and stuffed with the filling, or else be made in a free-form style with strips of dough decoratively encasing the filling.
This is fairly easy to make and great as appetizers/snacks. Try them and let me know what you think 🙂
Oh, btw, I categorized Russia under Europe, even though after doing a little research here and there, it is geographically, kinda part of Europe and Asia. To make things easier, I just grouped it under Europe 🙂
Another recipe from Polish & Russian cookbook by Lesley Chamberlain and Catherine Atkinson.
PIROZHKI
Ingredients
- 8 oz/2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp easy-blend dried yeast
- 1 oz/2 Tbsp butter softened
- 1 egg beaten, plus a little extra
- 6 Tbsp warm milk or more
- For the filling
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 6 oz minced chicken
- 1 Tbsp sunflower oi
- 5 Tbsp chicken stock
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl. Stir in the dried yeast, then make a well in the center
- Add the butter, egg and milk and mix to a soft dough. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth,elastic and no longer sticky to your hands. Add more milk if the dough is still too dry
- Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and lave in a warm pace to rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size
- Meanwhile, fry the onion and chicken in the oil for 10 minutes. Add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Leave to cool
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. Knead the dough, then roll out until 1/8" thick. Stamp out rounds with a 3" cutter
- Brush the edges with beaten egg. Put a little filling in the middle, then press the edges together. I used fork to imprint some patterns at the edge (it's optional). Leave to rise on oiled baking sheets, covered with oiled plastic wrap, for 15 minutes. Brush with a little egg. Bake for 5 minutes, then for 10 minutes at 375 F until well risen
