PIRAGI: LATVIAN BACON PIE

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 cup milk (preferably full-fat)
• ¼ cup coconut sugar
• 2 packages dry active yeast
• ¼ cup butter, cubed
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 2½ cups organic pastry flour
• 1½ teaspoon salt

Filling

• 1 pound smoked bacon
• 1 medium sized yellow onion, diced
• ½ cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

How to Make

Stage 1 - Prepare Piragi Dough

1. Take a small saucepot over medium heat. Melt your butter and add your milk in order to bring the milk to slightly above room temperature. Make sure not to get the milk too hot, though, since you don't want to kill the yeast!
2. As the milk is heating up, whisk in your coconut sugar and dissolve it in the liquid. Take the saucepot off the heat and let it cool for ~30 seconds
3. Next, add your yeast and whisk into the milk. Once whisked in, let everything rest for ~15 minutes as the yeast activates (if done right, the yeast will 3x in size pretty easily)
4. While the yeast is activating, take a large mixing bowl and sift your flour to remove any clumps
5. Once the yeast has activated, pour your milk/yeast liquid into the mixing bowl with flour and stir around
6. Add your Greek yogurt and egg to the mixing bowl, then continue to mix the dough. The dough should start to firm up, but add more flour to help it become firm and less wet
7. Cover your dough and let it sit for 1½ hours in a room temperature area. The dough should roughly double in size

Stage 2 - Prepare Piragi Filling

1. While the dough is rising, take a pan over medium-high heat and add your onion. Cook for ~1 minute as the onion starts to become translucent
2. Next, add your bacon and caraway seeds and mix well. Cook for another 1 minute
3. Add your mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. The filling will be ready to go once the mushrooms have slightly shrunk and are much softer
4. Take the pan off your heat and set aside for once the dough has fully risen

Stage 3 - Roll out Dough for your Bacon Pie

1. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Once the dough has risen, take it out of your mixing bowl and onto a flat, well-floured surface
3. Using a rolling pin or anything similar, roll the dough flat and to a roughly ¼ thickness. In case the dough is still a little too sticky, flour liberally here to keep it from sticking
4. Once your dough is rolled out, using either a mug or a flour cutter, cut out circles from the dough. Cut as many as you can (although you might have to rinse and repeat with any leftover dough)

Stage 4 - Folding the Piragi

1. Take one circle of dough in your hand and begin to pinch it out to slightly elongate it. Pinch all around the dough to get an even elongation
2. Next, take a spoonful of your filling and place it in the middle
3. Take one side of your dough and fold it over to the other side. Tuck the dough under your filling, and pull slightly to tighten the dough around the filling
4. Take your other edge of the dough and bring it up to close out the dumpling. Use your fingers to pinch both sides of the dough together
5. As you finish pinching, maneuver the shape of your bacon pie into a moon shape, then turn over and place on a greased baking sheet. Continue until you've done this for all your piragi
6. Before placing in the oven, brush some egg wash over the top of the bacon pie.
7. Place in the oven and bake for ~17 minutes. Especially with the egg wash, the piragi should develop a beautiful golden brown color to them
8. Only once the piragi have developed that golden brown color, take them out of the oven. This might take an extra minute or two, so just be patient until they're ready