10 Siberian Pastries

For ages, guests have been welcomed with bread and salt in Russia. And with some other things too, actually. Bread was baked two or three times a month

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For ages, guests have been welcomed with bread and salt in Russia. And with some other things too, actually. Bread was baked two or three times a month. That bread was a rye, high, round loaf. It was stored in fresh straw, so it remained soft and did not get stale for at least ten days. It was not customary to bake pancakes from white flour. They usually used wheat and rye flour in equal proportions and combined it with water on fast days, and with milk and eggs on others.
Besides, people baked various pies and cakes, pretzels and buns. They liked to eat pastries sitting at the Russian pechka oven and enjoying aromatic tea with various herbs on severe winter Siberian days.

Siberian Wreaths

300g flour
a little baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp butter
100g milk
fat for baking
powdered sugar for sprinkling

Mix and sift flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Combine powdered sugar, egg and butter, add milk, stirring continuously, gradually add the sifted flour. Knead dough. Roll out the dough on a floured kitchen board into a layer about 1/2cm thick and cut out round flatbreads with a dish, cut out the middle into each flatbread. Bake in hot fat and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Siberian Pretzel

For dough:
600g flour
140g sugar
100g margarine
20g yeast
200g milk
2 eggs
For filling:
40g almond
200g nuts
40g powdered sugar
2 eggs
0.1g vanillin

Knead leavened sponge dough with addition of raisins, candied peels and saffron. Shape it as a pretzel. Leave to rest, then brush with eggs, sprinkle with chopped almond, nuts or flour crumb and bake at 210-220 C. Sprinkle the pretzel with powdered sugar or cover with fondant and sprinkle with fried shelled and crushed almond. Did you know that "pretzel" is Latin for "bracelet"? First an unknown, but talented Old Roman confectioner baked this delicious pastry. He borrowed the shape of the bracelet – the most popular jewelry in those days – for his culinary novelty. The configuration of a pretzel symbolizes the inevitable recurrence of life. Pretzels are still rather popular in Europe; they are served with beverages or as a separate breakfast dish with butter or other dressing. In Russia, drinking tea with pretzels has always been a great pleasure.

Honey Cake

800g straight leavened dough
1 egg
butter for brushing
for filling:
1 cup honey
200g butter
1 cup shelled nuts
2 eggs

Prepare straight leavened dough. Roll out a round flatbread (reserve a little dough), put it on a buttered frying pan. Roll the remaining dough into a rope and put it around the flatbread to form a side. Prepare the filling. Heat honey with butter (the honey should become liquid), chill down, add crushed nuts, eggs and mix everything thoroughly. Lay the prepared filling on the cake surface evenly, leave to rest 12-15 minutes, then brush the side with whisked egg and bake in preheated oven at 210-220 C.

Potato Pies With Mushrooms

for dough:
400g potatoes
1 egg
30g butter
wheat flour
salt to taste
for mushroom filling:
5-8 dried mushrooms
50g butter
2 onions
ground black pepper, salt to taste
for frying: vegetable oil

Peel potatoes, boil them in salted water and process through a grinder. Knead potatoes on a floured board, add butter, egg, knead again. Roll the mass out evenly on a floured board and cut out circles with a cup or another round dish. Prepare the mushroom filling as follows. Soak dried mushrooms for 2-3 hours in cold water, then boil them, rinse, dry and chop finely. Fry in heated oil with peeled, rinsed and chopped onions. Fill the potato circles with this mass, pinch carefully and fry on both sides in heated oil. Serve hot, with sour cream.

Siberian Rybnik

800g straight leavened dough 2 eggs butter for brushing for filling: 500g fresh fish fillet 1 onion 2-3 potatoes 120g butter ground black pepper, salt to taste

Prepare straight leavened dough. Roll out 2 equal rectangulars (the size of your baking tray). Put one dough layer on the buttered baking tray. Lay the filling in the following order: first a layer of finely sliced raw potatoes, then large pieces of fish fillet sprinkled with salt and pepper, then finely sliced raw onions. Sprinkle with oil and cover with the second layer of dough. Connect the edges and wrap them down under the pie. Brush the rybnik with eggs whisked with a little salt, make a few punctures with a fork. Bake in the preheated oven at 200-220 C until ready, then immediately brush the pie with butter and cover with a clean linen napkin. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Pancakes

800g pumpkin
2 eggs
200g wheat flour
salt to taste

Grate or grind peeled pumpkin, add yolks, salt, flour, chopped pumpkin seeds and egg whites whisked into dense foam. Shape pancakes and fry them on a heated frying pan. Serve with sour cream, sugar, cinnamon or jam.

Pancakes With Apples

3 cups wheat flour
2.5 cups milk
20g yeast
4 eggs
0.5 cups sugar
4-5 apples
melted butter for frying
salt to taste

Take 1 cup of flour, all milk and yeast and make sponge dough. Put it in a warm place to rise twice. Add the remaining flour, sugar, salt, eggs, stir everything and combine with finely chopped peeled apples. Put the dough for a few minutes in a warm place and when it rises, fry as usual pancakes.

Buckwheat Pancakes

4 cups buckwheat flour
5 cups milk
50-60g yeast (preferably powdered)
250g butter or margarine
2 eggs
fat for frying
salt to taste

Add 3 cups of warm milk with yeast to flour and leave for 5-6 hours in a warm place. Then add two cups of boiling milk, egg yolks, egg whites whisked into dense foam, and 150g of melted butter or margarine. Stir everything thoroughly and leave to rest for 1 hour. Put a piece of fat on a hot frying pan; make sure it covers the surface evenly. Pour in the batter (so that it covers all the surface of the frying pan). When the pancake starts "growing", and its bottom gets brownish, sprinkle it with melted fat and turn over. Stack the cooked pancakes on each other and keep them warm (in a warm oven or on steam). Serve with melted butter, sour cream or jam.

Pancakes With Red Roe

280g wheat flour
0.7L milk
2 eggs
15g sugar
salt to taste
for filling:
50g red roe
fresh parsley and dill

Combine eggs, sugar, salt, add cold milk (half the portion). Add flour and stir until homogeneous. Stirring the batter, add the remaining milk. The batter should be similar to liquid sour cream. Fry thin pancakes on a frying pan with heated oil. Put a portion of red roe (to taste) on each pancake and sprinkle with finely chopped fresh herbs. Roll the pancakes into "envelopes" and serve.

Cookies "Siberian Tenderness"

100g butter
200g sugar
2 yolks
160g wheat flour
1 cup starch
125g sour cream
0.5 lemon
baking soda, salt to taste

Whisk softened (but not melted) butter with sugar, add yolks, grated lemon peel, sour cream, flour and soda dissolved in lemon juice. Knead the dough quickly, and roll it into "ropes". Cut them into cylinders 5-6cm long and 1cm wide, put them on a buttered baking tray, and bake in the oven at 200-210 C until light-yellow.

Bon appetite!