APPLE PIROG.
What do you do with milk that turned sour?
Better catch it before it starts stinking!
I never throw it away. The best is to use it for pancakes batter or yeast dough.
Today I’ve made an open apple Pirog. Traditional Russian Pie, Pirog can be made with any dough and filling. TheSweet Yeast dough is the favourite one.
By experimenting in my kitchen, I now make yeast dough without measuring: it’s all about basics and getting the right consistency, you can always add a little flour if the dough turns out to be too wet.
Ingredients:
Sour milk 300ml
Sugar – 100g
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Yeast 15g
White Flour – 600g
Eggs – 2
Butter softened – 120g
Filling:
Apples any kind of eating apples : 5 apples, cored and sliced into 1 cm thick slices
Butter – 50g
Sugar to sprinkle
Raisins – handful ( optional)
Drizzle
Icing sugar – 4 table spoons
Lemon juice from 1/2 of lemon
1. Put the flour into the mixer bowl . Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the milk and eggs and mix on a slow speed with a dough hook for a couple of minutes, then on a medium until you have a soft, glossy, elastic dough. Add the softened butter and continue to mix , scraping down the bowl periodically to ensure that the butter is thoroughly incorporated. The dough should be soft but not wet and gathering on the hook, rather than sticking to the walls of the bowl. If dough is still too wet, add a little more flour.
2. Tip the dough into a deep bowl, cover with clinfilm and chill overnight or for at least 7 hours, until it is firmed up.
3. Line with greased baking paper deep rectangular dish or a 28cm round deep cake tin, making sure that the sides of the tray are also lined.
4. Take the dough from the fridge. Tip it onto a lightly floured surface and fold it on itself a few times to knock out the air. Roll it out with a rolling pin to the size of your baking dish. Put the dough on the bottom of the dish, tacking in the edges.
5. Smudge soft butter lightly on the top of the dough and sprinkle with sugar.
6. Sprinkle handful of raisins and arrange apple slices overlapping each other.
7.Brush apples with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with some sugar.
8. Cover with the clean plastic bag and leave to prove until the dough has risen and pushed apple slices to the rim of the baking dish.
9. Heat your oven to 190°C.
10. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes . Bear in mind that the sugar and butter in the dough will make it take on colour before it is actually fully baked.
If the top of the Pirog starts browning too much, losely cover it with foil and continue to bake. Do not open the oven to check on baking at least for the first 30 minutes
Prepare the Drizzle by mixing well icing sugar and lemon juice.
If Drizzle is too wet, add some icing sugar, to achieve a thick paste consistency.
Carefully remove the Pirog with the baking paper around it from the tin , and put it on a wire rack.
Put the bowl with Drizzle into a microvawe on medium power for 10 seconds, so the paste becomes more liquid .
Drizzle generously all over and let Pirog stand to cool down on the wire rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Bon appetit!
Come and spend a 1, 2 or 3 romantic nights in the comfort of La Croix Du Reh, its gardens and exquisite meals.
Galya's Kitchen 
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