Pies

Pie recipes cover one of the broadest branches of baking – from classic yeast-dough pirozhki (small Russian hand pies) with cabbage to shortcrust grated tarts with berries and savoury pies on a kefir batter. The section gathers home recipes for the dough, fillings and shaping with step-by-step photography.

The foundation of every pie is the dough. Enriched yeast dough yields fluffy pirozhki, vatrushki (curd-filled rolls), shanezhki and belyashi. Shortcrust pastry produces grated pies with berries and curd, streusel-topped tarts and tartlets. Puff pastry suits rasstegai (open-top pies over fish or meat), small turnovers and quick mini-pies. Unleavened doughs on kefir or sour cream work for quick savoury pies with ready fillings. A separate group – stretched filo-style dough – stands behind samsa, chebureki and Caucasian chudu.

By form, pies split into open-faced tarts (quiche, fruit tart), closed pies with fully encased filling (kurnik, kulebyaka), lattice-top pies and individual hand pies. Russian tradition contributes kurnik with layered chicken and grain, kulebyaka with several fillings in one loaf, rasstegai with an open window over the fish, and the everyday vatrushka with sweet curd.

Types of pies featured

• Yeast pirozhki – baked and fried with cabbage, potato, meat, liver; belyashi and kulebyaka;
• Shortcrust pies – grated with apple, berries, curd, streusel-topped, tartlets;
• Puff pastry – rasstegai, mini-pies with curd and cheese, choux puffs;
• Kefir-batter pies – quick savoury with chicken, onion and cheese, with canned fish, with herbs;
• Regional – kurnik, kulebyaka, vatrushka, rasstegai, cheburek, samsa, chudu, quiche;
• Sweet pies – charlotte, semolina cake, sponge with pears, shortcrust with apricot;
• Lenten – cabbage, potato, mushrooms without milk or eggs.

Pie quality depends on the dough and baking regime: yeast dough needs proofing and warmth, shortcrust needs cold butter, puff pastry calls for strict temperature control between layers. Every recipe on recepty.mobi includes exact proportions and step-by-step photography.