How to Make Traditional Russian Piroshki with Jam – Пирожки с вареньем

Instructions

1. Yeast Dough:
2. Warm milk to 98 F (37C), add sugar, yeast. Mix well and let stand in room temp. 15 mins. In 15-20 mins the yeast mixture should rise with foam. If that doesn’t happen, it means the yeast is not fresh.
3. Melt butter, add kefir/buttermilk, yolk, salt, and sugar (if the filling is savory 2 tsp, if sweet like in this recipe - add 2 tbsp sugar). Mix well and heat to 97 F (36C).
4. Add Yeast mixture to butter mixture, mix well.
5. Sift flour with Baking Powder.
6. Slowly add the yeast-butter mixture to the flour.
7. Mix the dough Thoroughly, adding a little bit of flour if needed, not less than 10-15 minutes. This time is needed for the gluten in the flour to activate. If using mixer, use hook attachment and on slow-to-medium speed. The dough should become easy to work with, not sticky to your hands. Try not to overdo with the flour, as the piroshki would not turn out soft and fluffy. You can always add more flour, dung the pirozhki forming step.
8. Wipe a big bowl with vegetable oil. Put the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and leave in a warm place for approximately 1 hr, or until the yeast dough is doubled in size.
9. When doubled in size, pat the dough with your hands covered in vegetable oil, cover again with plastic wrap and leave to rise one more time. (You can skip the 2nd rise if you are very short on time. The second rise would make the dough even fluffier and baked piroshki softer).
10. When doubled in size, the the dough is ready to work with.
11. Divide the dough in the number of piroshki you plan to make. I like to have mine all the same size. My kitchen scale helps me here. Each piece weighs approximately 1 3/8 oz (40 g), and at the end I get approximately 20 pieces.
12. Preheat oven to 350-390 F (180-200 C).
13. Each piece of dough needs to be rolled into an evenly stretched ball. I show how to do this in details in the video. You need to stretch the dough from each side of the ball to the center and close in the bottom. Dust the working surface with flour if needed. The better the balls are shaped, the glossier and more beautiful the final baked piroshki will be.
14. Cover the dough balls with plastic cover to avoid drying and leave at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. This step is needed to make the dough easier to work with when forming the piroshki and filling them with jam.
15. The filling:
16. while the dough is resting, prepare the filling. Mix the jam of your choice with 1.5 tbsp potato starch. Apple jam is a very good choice, as apples have high pectin level thus the jam is less runny in the oven. In this recipe I used apricot jam.
17. Take one ball of dough and stretch it either with fingers or a rolling pin from the center to the edge, rotating carefully. This method creates the fluffier center of the baked pirozhok and it is easier to create neat closing folds.
18. Put 1/2 - 3/4 tbsp of jam into the center. Close. I use the braid close method here. It helps to create a beautiful seal that holds together, even after the oven and does not deform after the rise.
19. On the baking sheet covered with parchment paper, put the piroshki right after forming each of them. Once again, cover them with plastic cover or kitchen towel and let them rest and rise, one last time, 15-30 minutes. Before the last 5 minutes - brush them with egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of milk (or water), for a beautiful baked gloss and crust.
20. Baked until golden at 350-390 F (180-200 C), 20-25 mins. Once hot from the oven, transfer each pirozhok to cooling rack to avoid condensation formation in the bottom. Brush with melted butter.
21. Enjoy!

• Servings : 20
• Course : Appetizer, Breakfast, Dessert, Lunch
• Recipe Type : Appetizer, Bread, Pastries