The first time I made them with my mother-in-law - I made the dough, she seasoned the ground meat and shaped the piroshki. This time I had to do everything myself. The structure is actually quite simple.

You start with a classic yeast dough. For this, I put the following together in a mixing bowl and knead it thoroughly:

  • 500g flour
  • 200ml milk (room temperature)
  • 2 packets of dry yeast
  • 125g margarine (warm)
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Knead everything thoroughly and let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes - it should clearly increase in volume. I usually use the oven preheated to 50 degrees with a damp towel over the dough bowl, which provides exactly the right humid-warm climate. Tip: first mix the dry yeast into the flour, then add the other ingredients. This prevents yeast lumps and results in a more even dough. Instead of two packets of dry yeast, you can also use a cube of fresh yeast.

The filling is also not complicated, simply mix 500g minced meat with two bricks (chopped finely) and pepper, salt and other spices to taste. That's it for the filling.

Then knead the risen dough again by hand and form small balls - about the size of table tennis balls. Roll them out with a rolling pin to slightly larger than coaster size. Then place the minced meat on the dough rounds and form crescents (fold together). Seal the edges well. That was the complicated part, finding the right size for the dough balls, the right thickness when rolling out, and the right amount of minced meat as filling. This was still a bit rough this time, we just need to practice more. Since we had some dough left at the end of the minced meat, we filled the rest with jam. Tip: choose a jam with a strong flavor. Oh, and really press the edges together well - even with the sweet piroshki, a few opened up during baking.

Place all piroshki on a baking tray with parchment paper, brush with a beaten egg and bake in the oven at 180 degrees. With the quantity above, it will be two trays: bake the two trays for 20 minutes, then swap the positions of the two trays and bake for another 15 minutes. With only one baking tray, 30 minutes should be enough - just check, when the dough is nicely brown, it's done. This makes a large bowl full.