Pirojki with Meat and Rice - Baked

Nom nom. 

Ingredients: 

Dough: 

500 ml Milk

100 ml oil

2 tbsp yeast

2 eggs

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

5 cups flour

Filling: 

Meat

Rice

oil

finely chopped Onions

shredded Carrots

Greens (green onions, parsley, whatever) 

Egg plus 2 tbsp milk for egg wash

Sesame seeds for topping if desired

Directions:

1. Combine all but the dough ingredients together in a stand mixer. Mix. let stand for about 5-10 minutes

2. Add flour.

3. Mix the dough until it's all mixed in and not too sticky. 

4. cover with saran wrap and a towel. 

5. Let sit until it rises - (1-2 hrs)

Make the filling: 

1. Fry onions and shredded carrots in a dutch oven with oil until soft. 

2. Add in meat, if raw - until cooked. If cooked, until warmed. 

3. Add salt and pepper to taste

4. Add rice

5. Mix

6. Add greens if you have any. 

7. Mix. 

Assemble

Preheat oven to 350 F 

1. Divide dough in half. Then in half again. Should make about 20 or 24 Pirojki depending on size. Keep dividing until you have equal sized lumps. 

2. Roll out the lumps into dough circles. 

3. Pinch sides together and put on a sprayed silicon mat seam side down. You can make triangle, or elongated pirojki. If you have different filling or different spices, different shapes will help you differentiate the different kinds. 

4. Apply eggwash (whisk egg plus milk) with a brush and sprinkle sesame seeds on top

5. Make sure they are not touching as they will puff up. 

6. Bake for about 30 minutes. 

What we liked:

Yummy, fun, easy to reheat. 

What we didn't like:

Nothing, they were good. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

NOM NOM. He especially loves them with sriracha. 

Next time:

silicon mats work better than foil. 

Pirojki (Bread Pockets with filling)

Pirojki are traditional Russian bread pockets with filling. We fry them, but they can also be baked. We made ours with potatoes and cabbage/saurkraut/carrot mixture. However, they can be stuffed with many different things. They can even be made sweet too. We made some extra potatoes yesterday, and instead of making mashed potatoes with them, we fried up some onions and combined the potato with onions to make the filling - we put it in the fridge until today to use for pirojki.
The breading is a basic bread dough which is rolled out and cut out into circles. The circles are stuffed with filling and then we fry them.

Pirojki!

Kaspian's potato pirojok

Cabbage/onion/carrot/saurkraut stuffed pirojok

Set on a rack!

Frying!

Formed pirojok

We used the red thing to cut out our circles. 

Dough after 3 hours

Dough 

Potatoes + onions +salt

cabbage and carrots and salt 

saurkraut/cabbage/carrots and onions stuffing

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 yeast packet
2 tablespoons oil
flour
5-6 cups flour (add til correct consistency)

Potato filling:
4 cups Potatoes steamed or boiled, mashed up
2 large onions fried in lots of oil
Directions: combine together mashed potatoes and fried onion and oil.

Saurkraut filling:
1 package saurkraut
2 cups carrots
2 cups cabbage
1 cup onion
Directions: combine all ingredients and fry until soft

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. Knead by hand. The dough should stop sticking to your hands but still be soft. Cover and let rise for a couple of hours.
2. Make the fillings while dough rises
3. Get a piece of dough, roll out into a big sheet and cut circles.
4. Place filling in the middle of the circles and put the edges of the circles together like a taco.  Seal the edges by pinching them together.
5. Fry in a pan of canola oil - fill oil to go about halfway to the pirojok. Fry until golden on one side, then flip and fry a couple of minutes until the other side is golden brown. 

What we liked:

These turned out very good and yummy and crispy! The dough came out perfect this time. 

What we didn't like:

Nothing, they were great. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He did not want any "potato pockets" only bread, but after having a bite of the potato pirojok, he devoured the whole thing while dipping it into sour cream. 

Next time:

No changes needed.