Piroshki are a classic Slavic specialty. You can make these Russian Piroshki with fruit, mashed potatoes, meat or cheese. These have apples in them.

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Piroshki are a classic Russian/ Ukrainian specialty. You can make them with fruit, mashed potatoes, meat or cheese. These have apples in them.

Make these on a warm day when you can open your windows and air out the house; unless you like the “fried” aroma. These fluffy goodies are delicious and get devoured quickly.

Ingredients for the Russian Piroshki Dough:

1 1/2 Tbsp oil
15 oz luke warm water
4 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (divided)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
1 Tbsp sugar (omit sugar if doing meat or potato filling)

Ingredients for Russian Pirozhki Filling:

2 to 3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped finely (I use a food processor and pulse several times)
1/4 cup sugar (1/4 teaspoon per piroshok)

A bowl of finely chopped apples

Other Ingredients:

Enough canola oil to go half-way up the side of the piroshky when frying.
Extra flour to dust the cutting board.

How to make the Dough:

1. The easiest way to do this is in a bread maker. If you have one, set it to the dough setting and add the ingredients in the following order: Oil, water, 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour* , yeast.
A bread maker will do the following: mix, let dough rise, mix again and let the dough rise (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours)

*to get an flour exact measurement, use a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top with the back of a butter knife.

You can also make this dough using a stand mixer with a dough hook and then letting it rise in a warm place (like the oven).

2. Put the finished dough onto a well floured cutting board, sprinkle dough with flour and with well-floured hands, shape it into a large log. It will rise more as it sits on the board.

3. Cut off pieces one at a time about 3/4″ thick.

4. Place the piece of dough over your well-floured hand (dough will be sticky) and shape it into a 3″ to 4″ circle using your hands. Do not put flour on the side where you are going to put the apples, otherwise the sides won’t seal.
A log of dough on a floured cutting board with a Russian piroshok with apples on the side

A circle of dough rolled out being filled with apples

A circle of dough being filled with finely chopped apples to make piroshki

A close up Russian piroshki with apples on a floured cutting board

5. Put 1/4 tsp sugar in the center of the dough and put 1 heaping Tbsp of apple over the sugar. cover the apple with the sides of the dough and pinch the ends together with your fingers to seal the dough together.

6. Flatten the pirojki slightly to make them a more uniform size.

6. Heat oil in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan. There should be enough oil to cover the pirojki half-way up the side.

7. Place them in the hot oil (about 330°F) and fry until deep golden brown on each side. They should sizzle when you put them in the oil. Sometimes they puff up a lot on one side so you may end up with a third side that needs to be fried.

8. Place on paper towels to cool and enjoy!

Russian Piroshki (pirojki) with apples - Пирожки

5 from 11 votes
Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com
Piroshki are a classic Slavic specialty. You can make these Russian Piroshki with fruit, mashed potatoes, meat or cheese. These have apples in them.
Russian piroshki with tender apples are so soft, airy and satisfying. This has the best piroshki dough!
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients 

Servings: 15 -20 piroshki

Ingredients for the Dough:

  • 1 1/2 Tbsp oil
  • 15 oz luke warm water
  • 4 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
  • 1 Tbsp sugar, omit sugar if doing meat or potato filling
  • 2 to 3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped finely (I use a food processor and pulse several times)
  • 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon per piroshok

Other Ingredients:

  • Enough canola oil to go half-way up the side of the piroshky when frying.
  • Extra flour to dust the cutting board.

Instructions

The easiest way to do this is in a bread maker.

  • If you have one, set it to the dough setting and add the ingredients in the following order: Oil, water, 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour* , yeast.
  • A bread maker will do the following: mix, let dough rise, mix again and let the dough rise (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours).
  • Put the finished dough onto a well floured cutting board, sprinkle dough with flour and with well-floured hands, shape it into a large log. It will rise more as it sits on the board.
  • Cut off pieces one at a time about 3/4" thick. Place the piece of dough over your well-floured hand (dough will be sticky) and shape it into a 3" to 4" circle using your hands. Do not put flour on the side where you are going to put the apples, otherwise the sides won't seal.
  • Put 1/4 tsp sugar in the center of the dough and put 1 heaping Tbsp of apple over the sugar. cover the apple with the sides of the dough and pinch the ends together with your fingers to seal the dough together. Flatten the pirojki slightly to make them a more uniform size.
  • Heat oil in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan. There should be enough oil to cover the pirojki half-way up the side.
  • Place them in the hot oil (about 330°F) and fry until deep golden brown on each side. They should sizzle when you put them in the oil. Sometimes they puff up a lot on one side so you may end up with a third side that needs to be fried.

Place on paper towels to cool and enjoy!

    Notes

    To get an flour exact measurement, use a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top with the back of a butter knife. You can also make this dough using a stand mixer with a dough hook and then letting it rise in a warm place (like the oven).
    Course: Dessert, snack
    Cuisine: Russian, Ukrainian
    Keyword: Russian Piroshki
    Skill Level: Medium
    Cost to Make: $
    Natasha's Kitchen Cookbook

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    5 from 11 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    Comments

    • NatashaM
      July 29, 2012

      I am about to try cooking these for my family as I have just started learning Russian and decided to cook a Russian meal for my family and was wondering if you were supposed to coat them with sugar or anything else after frying them.

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        July 29, 2012

        It’s not necessary to coat them with anything 🙂

        Reply

    • Danielle
      June 3, 2012

      I am looking for a baked version of an apple filled piroshki. One more bit to the request, I am looking for a piroshki dough resipe (for the baked version) that is gluten free. Yes, a tricky request perhaps but my daughter is rather ill, must avoid all gluten, but loved piroshki, sigh. Any ideas or pointers would be terrific.

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        June 3, 2012

        Oh that is a tough question. I haven’t experimented with a gluten free version so I don’t have a good answer for you, but I’ll toss it around in my head and will let you know if I come up with anything.

        Reply

        • Danielle
          June 5, 2012

          Thanks. I was also wondering if adding raisins to the apple filling was all that common?

          Reply

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            June 5, 2012

            I’ve never had them that way so I’m not sure how common it is. If you try it with raisins, let me know what you think.

            Reply

            • Danielle
              June 6, 2012

              Raisins soaked for a few hours in a mix of vanilla extract and hot water adds a delicious full flavor. I also added almonds lightly toasted with a pad of butter and some granular sugar. These are so good.

            • Natasha
              natashaskitchen
              June 6, 2012

              Oh yumm!! Wow that sounds like an amazing mixture!

      • Ana
        December 5, 2014

        Hi Danielle, I know you asked this question a loooong time ago haha, but I decided to respond just in case it will help, because sometimes this information can be hard to find. I’ve done a lot of experimenting with gluten free stuff, and have found that the best equivalent to regular flour is a high quality gluten free oat flour + xanthan gum. The xanthan gum helps to duplicate what the gluten would normally do in a recipe so that you get the right texture in most baked goods. You can find it online if you can’t find it in stores. Some health food stores carry it. You want to use about 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum for 1 cup of gluten free flour. This works for most recipes. Unfortunately, without gluten, most yeast dough recipes will not rise without another leavening agent, so you might have to do some more research on that. Hopefully this will help in your experimenting. It’s really really hard to suddenly change your diet and not be able to eat beloved foods, but with a bit of diligence, equivalent recipes can be found/invented! 😀 I wish you and your daughter all the best.

        Reply

    • Tanya
      May 30, 2012

      Hi 🙂
      Do you by any chance know how to make bulochki?

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        May 31, 2012

        Hi Tanya,
        Please describe the kind of bulochki you are looking for. I might call them something else. You know how Russian food goes; i.e. blinchiki, oladi, etc.. 🙂

        Reply

    • Paramitha Nasimova
      March 28, 2012

      Is it ok if I will be using warm milk instead of warm water?

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        March 28, 2012

        I haven’t tried it with milk so I’m not sure how it would change the recipe. Sorry that’s not much help. If you do try it, let me know how it works out. I’m very curious now!

        Reply

        • Paramitha Nasimova
          March 29, 2012

          I come back with the result! Hihi…, it’s ok to use milk. Nothing’s went wrong. Because I didn’t want to waste if went wrong, so I divide by 4 ur recipe, I got 6 of Piroshki, and I wanted for morrreee! 😀 Absolutely recommended recipe! Yummy! Thanks again Natasha, you’re the best! 🙂

          Reply

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            March 29, 2012

            Good to know! I’ll try it next time!! Thank you so much!

            Reply

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            March 29, 2012

            I didn’t realize your were on Twitter! Looking forward to following your tweets!

            Reply

    • Julia
      March 6, 2012

      So I tried baking these piroshki and it turned out very well. I did the recipe without the sugar and had meat inside it. 350* for 30 min (until they were golden brown). Hope it helps!

      Reply

    • Viktoriya
      January 20, 2012

      What kind of food processor do you have? I’m in the market for one, but there’s so many different kinds and they range from $40-$100, not sure which is the best…

      Reply

    • Vladimir Iyerusalimets
      December 4, 2011

      I am trying my mom’s recipe right now. I will find out how it goes and i will take some pictures of the product itself. it is in the oven baking (Apple filled piroshki’s ) 🙂
      I will let you know how the result is, since i heard you are looking for a good baked piroshki recipe.
      -vlad

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        December 5, 2011

        That’s wonderful; thank you! I hope they turn out great :-)!!! Please let me know.

        Reply

        • vlad
          November 26, 2012

          Hi natasha, its been a really long time. I just want to let you know, the recipe did not turn out as great as i had hoped.. the piroshkis turned out very hard, i think it was in the way i prepared it. because whenever my mom made them they were always soft. I will continue to try and update you if anything changes.

          Reply

          • Natasha
            natashaskitchen
            November 26, 2012

            Really? I’ve made this countless times with all kinds of fillings and they’ve always been super soft. Did you do something different from the instructions?

            Reply

    • Yana
      September 29, 2011

      The best flour to use, i;ve learnd is King Arthur all purpose flour (red/white pack) which they only sell at publix 🙂 just a tip.

      Reply

    • Lenora
      September 7, 2011

      Love your site. It is so nice to see pride in old country recipes and to have a record of them.

      It’s been a long time since I have had apple pirohy. My Mom used to make hers with a yeast dough,a bit of sugar and the shredded apple, but she baked them. When they were removed from the oven she would spoon a syrup over them. The syrup was (I think) just sugar and water that had been heated. I have tried unsuccessfully to find her recipe and she can no longer remember how to make them.

      Reply

      • Natasha
        September 8, 2011

        Hi Lenora, Unfortunately I don’t have a good recipe for baked pirohy 🙁 If you find one, please let me know.

        Reply

    • Mark
      August 13, 2011

      Hi Natasha!

      My name is Mark from Brooklyn, NY…near Brighton Beach, which is known as “Little Odessa”..My family was born in southern Ukraine and I am first generation American. Thank you for this wonderful and resourceful website that is helping me reconnect to my childhood all over again. I have just one quick question with this and other dough recipes you make. Since I’m using a stand mixer, how long should I mix the dough for and how long should it rest? Do you let the dough rest twice? Thanks for any help you can provide and keep up the great work on this site!

      Reply

      • Natasha
        August 14, 2011

        I’ve never timed it that way before so I can’t give you very accurate time frames (and it’s been a long time since I’ve tried that route) I find that the breadmaker is easiest and seems to have the best results. I’ll try the mixer method next time and will try to give you more exact instructions.

        Reply

    • Julia
      May 26, 2011

      Privet,
      If I am doing the dough hook option, do I add the ingredients for the dough in the same order as the bread maker?

      Reply

    • Wilma
      April 2, 2011

      Thank You, Natasha!!! I’ve been looking for this recipe for a very long time. My baba also used to make them when I was a kid, but I remember the filling was made with beef liver and onions and thyme, they were delicious. She also used to fry them. I wish I could remember what else she added to that filling. I will try them soon!!!

      Reply

      • Natasha
        April 2, 2011

        You’re very welcome. I love hearing stories like that. It’s part of the reason I’m making this site, so my children and grandchildren will have a resource to make what “baba” used to make. And it has loads of my mom’s and my husbands mom’s recipes. 🙂 Thank you for your comment Wilma!

        Reply

    • Anastasia
      January 9, 2011

      So I made piroshki and they are not complicated :)) I guess I used to think that they were because I would watch my grandma when i was younger make the dough and it looked like so much work. But you have definitely inspired me 🙂

      Reply

    • Tina
      December 14, 2010

      Can you use veg. oil?

      Reply

    • stephanie
      November 18, 2010

      OMG!! I’ve been looking for this recipe. TY so much for posting it. My baba used to make these when I was a kid. Except she would grate the apples instead. How many does this recipe make?

      Reply

      • Natasha
        November 18, 2010

        Hi Stephanie, You’re welcome! I hope they taste the way you remember them. It makes 15-20 pirojki.

        Reply

    • Ester
      October 29, 2010

      What kind of flour do u use?:)

      Reply

    • Alenka
      October 5, 2010

      these are yummy!!

      Reply

    • Lisa
      August 25, 2010

      The recipe doesn’t have the OVEN TEMPERATURE AND HOW LONG? I bake it with 250F and it takes 2 hours to bake and hard like stone. It doesn’t taste good!

      Reply

      • Natasha
        August 25, 2010

        I never tried baking them. I fry them in hot oil (steps 6 & 7) in the recipe.

        Reply

    • Marina
      July 26, 2010

      he thank you so much for the recipe, if you have a recipe for holodets, or cabage with rice, please send it to my email, “marinaleksandrovna@yahoo.com

      Reply

      • marine abrahamian
        June 16, 2011

        Hi, Marina
        I do have a recipe for holodets & cabage with rice ( if it is what i think it is). Your e-mail is 1 year old. let me know if you get it from some one else.

        Reply

    • Natalia K
      March 4, 2010

      These look good (we call them ponchiki–piroshki are the ones baked in the oven)–never tried them with apple, but I love them with jam or meat or mashed peas. I’ve never made these, so I’ll have to try this recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

      Reply

      • Natasha
        August 25, 2010

        We always called these piroshki growing up. I thought ponchiki were more like doughnuts.

        Reply

      • don
        November 27, 2010

        do you have a recipe for baked piroshki with mashed peas? I haven’t tasted one in 60 years.

        Reply

        • Natasha
          November 27, 2010

          I don’t. I’m sorry. I only make the fried ones but ill definitely post it if I can get my hands on a good recipe

          Reply

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