Ukrainian Piroshky

Most ethnicities have some sort of meat or potato inside a bready coating whether it be samosas, tortillas, wontons, or the pierogie. This piroshky is pretty similar. But it’s baked, which I think is easier to manage than fried pastries. Dana and I eat these with Tarxoon, aka tarragon soda from Ukraine. It sounds gross, but it’s pretty good.

 

Anyway, the recipe: I usually half the dough and it’ll make 6-8 good sized piroshkies.

The dough: 2 cups milk

1 TBL yeast (or one of those packets)

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

5-6 cups of flour

Warm the milk, add the yeast and let it mellow for a few minutes. Add the other ingredients. Let rise for 1 hour.

Potato filling:

1.5 kg of potatoes, boiled and puréed

100 grams of onion

100 grams vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

Saute onions in oil and add to puréed potatoes. Season accordingly. I like to use garlic powder, but it’s delicious with just salt and pepper. Once, I misread the recipe (the original we have is written in Russian) and sautéed ground beef instead with the onions and then added it to the potatoes. That was good too. All I’d say about adding meat is that you should cook it before filling the dough.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has risen, half the dough repeatedly until you get a lump about the size of a lime. Roll it out and spoon in your filling. I’m going to estimate 1/4 of a cup to 1/2 a cup of filling for each lump of dough. Pinch the dough closed around the filling and place on a lined baking sheet.  I’m a bad person and haven’t timed how long these cook, but I’m going to say start with 10 minutes and move up from there. When they’re golden brown, the piroshkies are done. If you like the shiny crust, you can glaze the piroshky before putting them in the oven with an egg or with some milk.

Super yummy. And they’re super convenient to take and eat on the go, like a hot pocket, but better.