Fluffy puffy Pirozhok. For me, it's not like bread, it shouldn't be sour and gummy at all, but very soft and tender. That's why originally the dough for pirozhki is made with regular yeast. But for adding extra taste and smell you can add a little bit of sourdough starter, so here I share two variants of the dough: just with yeast + sourdough and yeast.
I personally love more yeast variant, it's more tender, but sourdough will definitely add its interesting hints.
YEAST VARIANT:
- 500g all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
- 30 g sugar
- 40 g butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 5 g dry east (15 g fresh pressed yeast)
- 6 g salt
- 300 ml milk ( judge by you your own flour start from a less amount, 270 ml and then add step by step during the mixing process, the consistency should not be liquid and not too stiff, a very soft dough. Your dough may even take more milk, it depends on flours we use, last time my flour took 350 ml of milk).
*Here in the recipe milk is measured in milliliters, not in grams!
You can use less yeast, but the dough will need in such a way more time to proof, so it will be your experiment:))
THE DOUGH with SOURDOUGH STARTER:
- 500g all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
- 30 g sugar
- 40 g butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 120 g of 100% wheat sourdough starter
- 2,5 g of dry yeast (7,5 fresh pressed yeast)
- 6 g salt
- 300 ml milk ( judge by you your own flour, start from a less amount, 270 ml and then add step by step during the mixing process, the consistency should not be liquid and not too stiff, a very soft dough. Your dough may even take more milk, it depends on flours we use, last time my flour took 350 ml of milk).
*Here in the recipe milk is measured in milliliters, not in grams!
All timing is the same, as in yeast variant.
MIXING: in a stand mixer 5-6 min, or 10 min by hands
PROOFING:2-2,5 h at a room temperature 23-25°C (75° F)
The dough should triple in size for only yeast dough, and double for sourdough variant.
PRESHAPING: degas the dough, divide into pieces 50-55 g each, preshape and round them as small balls, leave on the counter at room temperature for 15-20 min covered with a towel or some plastic wrap. Totally I had 18 dough pieces.
FILLING:
- 530 g of young green cabbage
- 1 ripe sweet soft pear
- 85 g of any kind of smoked ham you prefer, even without ham it will be great as well
- fresh thyme
- salt, pepper
- 1 clove of garlic
Cut the cabbage very thin, fry it for 10-12 min over medium heat, 2 min before the end add pear and ham, salt, pepper, 1 pressed clove of garlic and fresh thyme, let the mixture cool down.
SHAPING: roll each ball into an oval, the thickness is 5 mm, put the 1 tb spoons of the filling into the center, then close the edges, stick one side of the dough to the other to get a shape of a boat. Then turn the "boat" over, push it a little bit with your fingers, brush away extra flour from the surface of our pirozhok and put it on the baking pan with a parchment paper on it for further retard.
RETARD: leave all shaped pirozhki at a room temperature for 30 min covered with a towel or a plastic wrap.
BAKING: preheat the oven till 360° F (180° C), then eggwash all pirozhki with a mixture of 1 egg yolk and 2 tb spoons of milk. Bake for 30 min till golden on top.
