Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

Apple Pastry (Pirog)

In the Russian community I grew up in we called our sweet and savory sheets of yeast dough baked and filled with fruit or cabbage or meat, Pirog пиро́г (make sure to roll the r when you pronounce it).

This recipe will make enough dough for 2 small cookie sheet sized pastries. You can cut the recipe in half if you aren't feeding a crowd or giving some away.

Dough:
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages yeast (each packet is approx. 2-1/4 teaspoons yeast)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
about 6 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Dissolve yeast in warm water with the 1 tablespoon sugar.
Warm the sour cream carefully to lukewarm.
Mix the sour cream, butter, sugar, eggs, salt, and yeast mixture.
Start adding the flour 1 cup at a time till all mixed in and your dough comes away from the bowl and starts to form a ball. You might need a little more than 6 cups of flour.
Knead the dough on a floured surface.
Place the dough in a bowl in a warm place away from draft and let it rise twice punching in between rises. This could take up to 2 hours.
Divide the dough in half. Work with one half at a time if you are filling 2 small cookie sheets.
On a floured board or surface roll the dough out to the size of your small cookie sheet (approx. 15-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1) The dough should be 1/4-1/2 inch thickness.
Carefully transfer the dough to the prepared cookie sheet (greased) and pat the dough down to fit to the edges and up the edges.
Fill the prepared dough with your choice of filling.
Bake in 350 degree oven for approx 40 minutes or until dough is a golden brown.
Cool before cutting in small portions and serving.

Filling:
4 cups fruit - fresh, previously frozen, or canned
1 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons corn starch 

Bring all the ingredients to a boil and then let cool before spreading evenly over the dough.
I added nuts on top of the filling but that is optional.
I used apple slices that I chopped into bite sized pieces.
*This filling recipe was enough for one cookie sheet of the dough. Double it if making 2 cookie sheets.


I had some roasted pecans and decided to sprinkle them on top before baking the Pirog пиро́г.
 The finished product. I'm a novice at baking with yeast doughs and kneading dough but slowly but surely I'm practicing my way into a comfort zone to try these recipes my mom made for larger gatherings. I'll share some of her savory Pirog recipes in the future using a slightly different dough recipe. My mom's Pirog usually had another layer of dough on top of the filling that was pinched to the bottom layer of dough. Then you would cut decorative slits on the upper dough before baking. Stay tuned for that method with a savory filling.

8 comments:

  1. I'm part Czech and I grew up with a similar recipe but we called it kuchen. My kids especially loved cherry but many different fruits were used.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this looks and sounds amazing, I will love to try this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mmmmmm! That looks delicious! I think I'd want to eat ten bars! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for this recipe. I love the old recipes that were not only thrifty but delicious and made with pure ingredients.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We called this pie by the yard and usually had a crust top.........so good. Will try it after New Years. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yum!!! Cut in small squares, huh? Well, that's so you can have more than one and not feel guilty! I'm going to have to try this one (after the holidays!) with the tart pie cherries I froze from our trees in the back yard!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wonderful picture..!!
    you say cut into small pieces.. well that's probably not happening.. LOL
    I've also heard this called slab pie... this would be just great to take to a gathering for sure. ! Really looking forward to your future posts with this dough.
    Thanks so much for sharing this

    ReplyDelete
  8. This was fantastic! I spaced when reading the recipe and didn't prepare enough apples so I sprinkled with some canned dark cherries and some frozen blueberries and it was exquisite. Thank you for a wonderful recipe to add to our collection.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.