From time immemorial in Russia baked pies with a variety of fillings. In their honor, the people even came up with a proverb that says: "If there were pies, there would be friends." This dish was served during the holidays, so its name originates from the word feast. Pies are baked and fried, and they are also made of a wide variety of doughs: yeast, puff, made on a sponge or on kefir. Unfortunately, history has not preserved to this day the exact name of the chef who first made the pies, but over the centuries has carried the most varied recipes for this wonderful dish.
Puff pastries - general principles and methods of preparation
A feature of the preparation of pies from puff pastry is its rolling into several very thin layers. In order to make this dough more elastic, food acid is added to it, which helps to increase the viscosity of flour and proteins. The finished dough is rolled into a rectangular shape, the thickness of which should not exceed ten millimeters. It is necessary to roll out the dough very smoothly and slowly, equally in all directions, otherwise the baking will rise poorly. Ready dough must be left in the refrigerator for forty minutes. Baked products should be rosy, golden and when pressed with a knife should rise without deflection.
Puff pastries - product preparation
Puff pastries can be served as a separate dish or as a hot snack. For their filling, meat, vegetables, eggs, fish, cottage cheese, as well as all kinds of sweet jams or jams, are perfect. They can be baked in the oven or deep-fried in well-heated vegetable oil. Puff pastry can be bought at the store or prepared on your own, this does not require any special culinary skills. Puff pastry needs flour, water and salt. A ball formed from these products must be put in the refrigerator for a day, and the next day add a little butter and roll out. Do not put much pressure on the dough, otherwise the pies will be hard and not airy. And in order for the pies to turn out to be more rosy, you need to grease them before baking with fresh egg yolk.
Puff pastries - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Puff Pastry with Meat
Such pies are easily and quickly prepared, and to create them you will need a minimum amount of products. In addition, you can safely experiment with the filling. Inside the dough, you can put the meat of one variety or mix several of its types.
Ingredients: 500 grams of meat or prepared minced meat, 2.5 cups flour, three quarters cups of fresh milk, 1 egg, a pinch of baking powder, 150 grams of butter.
Cooking method
Grind the butter and flour into crumbs, add milk mixed with a baking powder and slightly beaten egg to the resulting mass. All salt and mold a lump of dough. You can’t mix it, you just need to fasten it into a homogeneous mass and leave it for ten minutes. After that, the dough should be divided into two equal parts, rolled out and greased with melted butter. Next, the dough rolls into a roll, from which a bun is made, which should be cooled in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
At this time, the filling is being prepared. Twist the meat in a meat grinder, fry with onion in butter, add salt and pepper to taste.
Next, you need to get the dough, roll it thinly, with the help of a glass, make the same round billets for pies, in the middle of which put the stuffing. Gently pat the edges of the pies, grease them with an egg on top and put in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
Recipe 2: Sweet Puff Pastry
These tender pies can be made with both sweet filling and goat cheese filling. Their cooking time is one hour and forty minutes. These pies will be a great addition to homemade tea drinking or will be an ideal solution for treating guests.
Ingredients: 800 grams of flour, 1 cup low-fat sour cream or whey, 3 eggs, ½ teaspoon of soda, 2 teaspoons of sugar, salt to taste. For the filling, you need half a glass of walnuts, melted butter, 2/3 glasses of sugar and liquid honey.
Cooking method
In order to prepare the dough, you need to mix the flour with soda and salt, make a small deepening, break an egg into it and pour sugar. Knead the dough well and leave it for ten minutes to make it soft. Then cover the dough, put in a warm place and leave for another thirty minutes.
While the dough is infused, you can cook the filling. It is necessary to crush nuts mixed with sugar in a mortar.
Divide the dough into six even parts and put on a surface sprinkled with flour. Roll each piece thinly and grease generously with butter. Then put 1/6 of the nut-sugar mixture in the middle. With a dough wheel, cut a rectangle measuring 7 by 8 centimeters and grind the corners so that the edges remain open on top.
Put the pies on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, which put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake until golden brown for fifteen minutes. Cool the pies a little and pour over honey.
Recipe 3: Puff Pastry with Apples
These pies can be prepared at any time of the year, they are extremely tasty, sweet and fragrant.
Ingredients: For the test you will need 400 grams of sifted flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of citric acid, 180 milliliters of water and 350 grams of softened butter. For the filling, you need 500 grams of ripe apples and 80 grams of sugar.
Cooking method
Stir 4-5 tablespoons of flour with butter. The mixture is rolled into a square layer, the thickness of which should not exceed 2 centimeters. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, then remove and put on a flour-sprinkled surface. Next, you need to make a recess in the mixture, into which water is added, add salt and citric acid. Knead the dough immediately, it should turn out soft and thick.
Then you need to roll the dough into a ball and let it stand for another half hour. Then roll the ball into a square and put chilled butter on it and sprinkle with flour. Roll into a layer, a thickness of one and a half centimeters and again put in the refrigerator for thirty minutes. This process will need to be repeated four more times and each time the dough needs to be cooled for fifteen minutes.
While the dough is cooling, you should prepare the filling. It is necessary to wash the apples, remove the core from them, peel the peel and cut into small cubes, which mix with sugar.
After that, it is necessary to mold the pies of a triangular shape, put them on a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for twenty minutes.
Puff pastries - tips from experienced chefs
In order for the pies to acquire a beautiful shiny and ruddy color, it is necessary to grease them with a chilled egg, and after baking put a piece of butter on them. When frying pies in deep fat, you can add a piece of carrot to the oil - this will give them a more beautiful color.
