Pirogues – Copyright Coquere
Pirogues is a Russian pastry that taste great – especially like here straight out of the oven
Pirogues
Pirogues is a Russian pastry very similar to Spanish Empanadas and English Cornish pasty. The difference is that pirogues is yeast dough-based and thus easier to handle. The yeast dough also makes them a lot lighter, than the puff pastry based category. Pirogues is equally excellent as snack, dinner and for lunch. Here you have a suggestion for a filling with a lot of flavour, and which is well suited to the pirogues. It is a little time consuming to make pirogues, but in return, they are perfect for freezing. This recipe for pirogues is therefore suitable to make in bigger batches. Here I have made pirogues with 14 cm diameter, giving eight pirogues with this particular recipe. You will get some filling leftover, but it is versatile and suitable to use with for example pasta. It can also be frozen and then stored for later use.
Ingredients:
The dough
170 g Tipo O flour
170 g All-purpose flour Spelt
160 g Wholemeal Spelt
7 g dry yeast (½ package)
3 dl water (maximum 37 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
One egg for brushing
The filling
400 g minced meat
1 large onion or 2 small
2 cloves garlic
1 celery stick (in other words, a branch not the bundle)
½ carrot
1 potato
1 ½ teaspoon. salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 dl. red wine
1 dl. beef broth or bouillon
50 g of sweet corn (i.e. ½ small box)
Some grated good cheese
Directions: Pirogues
The filling
- Start with the filling because it takes the longest time.
- Cleaning the onion and garlic. Cut them finely, or run quickly in a food processor.
- Peel and cut the potato and carrot into very small cubes.
- In a frying pan with a little oil, fry the onion until they becomes a little translucent, about 3-4 minutes time. Add the onion into a suitable saucepan.
- Brown the minced meat in same frying pan. It might pay to brown it in two rounds, so that it does not cook instead of browning. Then put it in the saucepan with the onions.
- Have the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan also, with the exception of the corn. Stir well and bring to a boil. Let it all simmer until all the liquid almost has evaporated. It takes approximately 60-90 minutes.
- Take the saucepan from the heat, and stir in the corn. Leave it to cool down.
The dough
- While filling is simmering start on dough.
- Put all the dry ingredients into a mixer. Be sure to have yeast and salt in each end of the flour. Add the olive oil and lukewarm water. Run machine by kneading for 10 minutes.
- Then cover the bowl with cling film, and put it somewhere that is dry and warm. Let it rise for 45-60 minutes.
- Take the dough out on to a table with a little flour on. Knead it lightly with your hands until you get a fit nice dough. It should be soft and elastic.
- With a rolling pin roll until you have a dough, that is approximately 0.5 cm thick.
- Use a bowl or saucer as a template and cut out circles. It is not easy to roll out all the dough, so you will have some left over dough on the first attempt. Roll out the left over dough and create new circles. Continue with this procedure until you have no dough left. With 14 cm templates, you get eight pirogues.
Assembly
- Whisk together the egg with some water.
- Brush the half perimeter of each pirogue. This works a bit like glue when you fold together.
- Add approximately 1 tablespoon of filling on each pirogue. Make sure you put it so the pirogue can folds into a crescent. Add some grated cheese.
- Fold the pirogue together; make sure that nothing of the filling is coming all to the outer edge.
- Press the edge firmly, first with your fingers, and then with a fork. Repeat the process with each pirogue.
- Brush all the pirogues with the egg mixture.
The pirogues assembled and ready for baking
Baked: In preheated oven at 220 °C for 13-15 minutes. Take out and let pirogues rest on a rack for about 10 minute to cool a little down. You can eat them right away, or wait until they are completely cold and put them in the freezer.
Pirogues served: Hot without any accessories, but can be accompanied by a small salad, if desired.
Allergy: Gluten, High on FODMAP