Pyrizhky, pirozhki, piroshki or whatever you may call them are fluffy and soft pastries (hand pies) with a savory filling baked or fried until golden and crisp. Ukrainians cook them all year round with different sweet and salty fillings, depending on what food, veggies, and fruits are in season. There are dozens of dough recipes and filling ideas. All of them are wonderful but today we are going to cook yeast-raised piroshky with a tender and hearty liver-carrot-onion filling hidden inside. Baked until golden, they spread a wonderful flavor all around. These piroshky can become a great appetizer for your guests, snack at a picnic, or lunch at work.
Easy to pack. Entertaining to cook. Fragrant and delicious by themselves.
Ingredients:
Dough
- 700 g (1,5 lb) flour
- 2,5 tsp dry yeast
- 30 ml sunflower oil
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 500 ml milk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- A couple of bay leaves
- Ground black pepper – to taste
- Salt – to taste
Filling
- 1 kg (35 oz) beef liver
- 1 big carrot /3 little ones
- 2 medium bulb onions
- 3-4 tsp sunflower oil
- Ground black pepper – to taste
- Salt – to taste
Cooking
We start by making the yeast-raised dough.
Sift flour through a sieve. Preheat milk slightly and add yeast, a couple of tablespoons of sugar and several tablespoons of flour. Mix everything thoroughly and leave the dough for 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl combine the remaining flour and sugar. Add salt and mix to combine. Then stir in the yeast-milk mass. Knead the dough thoroughly and add sunflower oil. Continue to knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. Grease a separate bowl with oil and transfer the dough there. Cover the bowl with a piece of food wrap. Leave the dough for 40-60 minutes to let it rise.
Now let’s make the liver-carrot-onion filling.
Wash liver under running water. Pour water in a pan and bring it to boil. Add the liver. Adjust salt, pepper, and add a couple of bay leaves. Cook the liver over medium heat for around 20 minutes, skimming off the foam from time to time. Then let the liver cool and grind it in a food processor.
Wash, peel, and grate a carrot/carrots. Peel, rinse, and chop bulb onions.
Preheat oil in a frying pan. Add bulb onion and fry it until golden. Then add carrot and sauté the mass. Combine the carrot-onion mass with the liver. Season the filling with salt and black pepper.
Grease the working surface with sunflower oil. Divide the dough into pieces, forming the balls (keep your hands well-oiled to prevent the dough from sticking). Take one ball and stretch the dough to get a flat circle. Put about 1,5-2 tbsp of the filling in the center. Pinch two opposite edges of the dough together tightly to seal in the filling. Tuck in the ends and neatly shape each hand pie into an oval.
Arrange patties on a baking tray covered with foil and greased with sunflower oil.
Combine 2 tbsp of sunflower oil with one yolk and grease all patties with a silicon brush. Leave them for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F) and transfer our pirozhki there. Bake hand pies for 15 minutes and then flip them on the other side. Continue baking for a quarter of an hour until piroshki get a golden brown color.
Now it’s the toughest part – wait until these fluffy and flavorful goodies cool to warm and you can start to enjoy them!
Enjoy your meal!
Have you liked the recipe for liver-filled hand pies?
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