Baked Potato Piroshki are simply the plural form of the Russian word pirozhok, meaning small pie. This recipe is a bunch of small meat pies, but adding everyones favourite carb, the potato. They are also sometimes called Pirozhki, or Pīrāgi, depending of what part of Eastern Europe you’re from. They were introduced by the USSR across the empire and are now commonly found across Central Asia.
Around the world there are many variations of a meat pie, such as Empanadas, Samosas, Vatrushka, Belyashi, and even the Pasty are all similar. Although commonly fried in oil, which I think I prefer, to bake it is much healthier and absolutely delicious. I used to be scared of the work required to make dough with yeast, the rising, the temperature, but I love the dough setting on my Cuisinart bread maker. It does all the work for me, just drop the ingredients and walk away. It’s perfect!
Ingredients
1 cup milk lukewarm
2 eggs set aside 1 yolk for egg wash with 1 teaspoon whipping cream
3 tablespoons oil – using 15ml measure – melted butter is better
3 1/3 cups of flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons yeast – slightly less than a packet
500 g lean ground beef
250 g potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed
1 large onion chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Place ingredients, in the order listed, into your bread machine and select the dough program. Milk, eggs, oil, flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Takes about 90 minutes for the dough cycle to complete.
In a frying pan, over medium high heat, the ground beef until cooked and evenly browned. Add onions and continue to fry until translucent. Boil the peeled potatoes until soft, and make into mashed potato. Add salt and pepper to the meat and potato mixture, mix together and set aside to cool before adding to the dough.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F
When the dough is ready, carefully place onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a long sausage shape. You want to cut into pieces that are approx. the size of a golf ball. Or you can pinch off golf ball pieces from the dough. You should get about 24 pieces from this recipe. Cover pieces you aren’t working on with cling wrap so they don’t dry out. I worked on 4 piroshki at a time before rolling out more, allowing 12 per baking sheet.
Roll out the dough balls thinly into the shape of an oval. Place about 1-2 tablespoons of the filling in the centre. Pinch both sides of the edges of the dough together, creating a seal all around. Don’t allow the filling to touch the edges or the seal will come apart.
Place the piroshki on parchment paper, or a lightly greased baking tray, upside down, so you cannot see the pinched seal, and flatten them a bit. Don’t allow them to touch each other, as they will stick together.
Make the egg wash by beating the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of whipping cream and brush the piroshki with the egg wash before putting into the oven.
Place into the oven and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Enjoy .
