Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Little pies with sauerkraut and mushroom filling


It took me a long time to perfect my recipe for these little pies filled with sauerkaraut and wild mushrooms. In Poland they are perfect accompaniment for clear soups, especially barszcz (beet soup that you may know by the Russian name borscht).
My pies are tiny, just for one bite. Here are some photos that will help you to learn how to shape them.


Little pies with sauerkraut and mushrooms
(Paszteciki z kapustą i grzybami)

about 100 tiny pies


Filling:

25g dried mushrooms

3 tablespoons butter for frying

2 large onions, finely chopped

1 medium white cabbage (approximately 500 g)

1/2 kg drained sauerkraut

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon crushed fennel seed

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

fine dry bread crumbs (optional)


Buttery yeast dough:

3 and 1/4 teaspoon dried yeast

100-125 ml sour cream 21% fat (about 6 -8 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon sugar

500 g flour

1 and 1/3 teaspoon salt

200 g butter

1 egg
3 egg yolks

On Top:

1 egg lightly beaten

3 teaspoons white sesame seeds

3 teaspoons black sesame seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

Filling:

Soak mushrooms in water for
1 hour. Boil them in soaking water until tender (about 20 minutes). Reserve about 1/3 glass of the liquid. Drain the mushrooms and chop
them very finely. Shred white cabbage very finely and cook for about 15 minutes in a large quantity of slightly salted water. Add sauerkraut and cook for another 10 minutes. Drain very well, let it cool and chop one more time. Brown onions in butter in large skillet. Add cooked cabbage, mushrooms, reserved mushroom cooking liquid, ground cumin and fennel. Fry for another 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the filling is too wet, you can add a few tablespoons of fine breadcrumbs.

Buttery yeast dough:

Mix yeast with cream and sugar.
Leave for about 20 minutes or until it starts to bubble. Chop flour with butter. Add
lightly beaten egg yolks, whole egg and yeast mixture. Knead the dough quickly, like a pastry dough (it should be shiny and quite soft). Cover and leave to rise on the counter (for about 50-60 minutes) or leave in the refrigerator overnight. (If you choose to refrigerate the dough, on the next day it should be taken out from the fridge and left on the counter for about 1 and 1/2 - 2 hours until it reaches room temperature).

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Arrange a filling in form of the roll and put it 5 cm from the edge of the dough. Wrap the dough around the filling, pressing well with your fingers to seal the filling inside
. Cut off entire roll of dough with the filling and lay it on the counter (seam side down). Brush the top with egg mixture and sprinkle with sesame, caraway and nigella seeds. Cut in small triangles. Place the pies 5 cm apart on the oven tray lined with baking paper. Repeat the entire procedure with a new batch of filling.

Allow the pies to rise (usually when you finish filling your second tray the first one is ready to go to the oven).
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the pies are golden.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Found your blog. Such a nice one ! Gabi.

Agnieszka said...

Gabi, nice to see you here!! Great thanks for your comment.

Tia said...

that dough looks amazing. great color!

Agnieszka said...

Thank Tia, I suppose Farmers Market fresh eggs helped a lot to give such a yellow colour.

tasteofbeirut said...

Beautiful and the photo looks totally pro

Cherine said...

You have a nice blog and your photos are PERFECT :)