Did your grandmother sit at the kitchen table for hours each Sunday, rolling dough and crimping the edges? If not, you’ve been missing out.
Pastries and buns, called pirozhki (пирожки), are one of the most traditional and tastiest Russian baked goods. They come with all sorts of different breads and fillings.
Don’t worry about forks or knives. Pirozhki can be eaten with your hands.
Tastiest pastries in all the land.
Pirozhki can come with any number of fillings. The most common fillings are meat, cabbage, mushrooms, potatos, and apples.
pirozhok s… (пирожок с…) – pastry with…
- myasom (мясом) – meat
- kapustoi (капустой) – cabbage
- gribami (грибами) – mushroom
- kartoshkoi (картошкой) – potato
- yablokami (яблоками) – apple
Practice your Russian: Pirozhki Stuffing 101
Check out this video on how to fill pastry dough with filling.
Watch and listen carefully! Can you figure out these words?
- Vot eto moyo drozhzhevoye testo.
- Ya ne delayu evo sil’no krutym… pirozhki ya lyublyu tak.
- Vot tak vy otshchipyvaite. Dal’she, razminaite.
- Pal’tsy predvaritel’no smazat’ ractitel’nym maslom.
- Vykladyvayem nachinku… i zashchiplyayem.
- Obychno, ya kladu pirozhki shvom vniz na protvin’.
- Shchas (Seichas) pokazhu kak delat’ kosichku.
- Poluchayetsya vot takaya kosichka.
- Stavim pirozhki dlya rasstoiki na protvin’. Vsyo!
Variations on a theme
Pirozhki aren’t made with just potatoes and cheese. There are lots of tasty variations. Here are few creative combinations. Try them all. (As if you could resist!)
khachapuri (хачапури)
Flakey dough with salty cheese filling (of Georgian origin).
kulebyaka (кулебяка)
Baked dough with multiple layers of different fillings inside.
cheburek (чебурек)
Flat dough with peppery ground beef inside (of Turkish origin).
vatrushka (ватрушка)
Round dough with tvorog (творог) (farmer’s cheese) in the middle.
rasstegai (расстегай)
Bread bowl or flute with the filling poured into it (usually fish).