Apricot patties

The recipe for yeast pies with apricots, which we will bake in the oven. Delicate, fluffy and airy dough on kefir with a juicy, bright and aromatic sweet and sour filling. In season, be sure to cook with fresh apricots, and in winter with frozen or jam.

I take wheat flour of the highest grade, and kefir is suitable for any fat content (in my case, 2.5%). Add refined vegetable oil, that is, odorless. The amount of sugar in the yeast dough can be slightly reduced if you like a more neutral taste. The weight of the apricots is indicated already prepared. There may be less sugar in the filling if the fruits themselves are sufficiently ripe and sweet.

You don't have to take fast-acting yeast - just dry (also 1.5 teaspoons - 5 grams) or pressed (you need 3 times more, that is, 15 grams) are perfect. Such yeast is not immediately mixed with flour, but pre-activated in a warm sweetish liquid for 10-15 minutes. In our case, you can slightly warm up half a glass of kefir with a tablespoon of sugar and dissolve yeast in it.

Ingredients

• For yeast dough:
• Wheat flour of the highest grade (500 grams)
• KefirKefir (300 milliliters)
• SugarSugar (100 grams)
• Vegetable oilVegetable oil (3 tablespoons)
• Fast acting yeast Fast acting yeast (1.5 teaspoons)
• Cooking Salt Cooking Salt (1 teaspoon)
• For filling and lubrication:
• ApricotApricot (500 grams)
• SugarSugar (3 tablespoons)
• MilkMilk (1 tablespoon)
• Egg yolk (1 piece)

Directions

1. First, let's take the products that we need to make yeast dough: wheat flour, kefir or sour milk, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, salt and yeast. All products must be at room temperature.
2. Sift wheat flour (500 grams) into a bowl (preferably twice). Thanks to sifting, the flour is not only loosened and saturated with oxygen, but possible debris is also removed. I use 500 grams of flour, since I use a product of the same brand (Lidskaya) - you may need a little more or a little less.
3. Add to the flour 1.5 teaspoons (1 heaping spoon) of fast-acting yeast, 100 grams of sugar and 1 flat teaspoon of salt, that is, under a knife (preferably finely ground).
4. Mix thoroughly with a fork or whisk so that all dry ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
5. We make a depression in the flour mixture and pour 300 milliliters of kefir into it. You can warm it up quite a bit, just a little.
6. We mix all the products - you can use your hand or a fork (as it is convenient for anyone). When the flour is moistened, absorbed moisture, add three tablespoons of vegetable oil. I use refined sunflower.
7. You need to knead this yeast dough for quite a long time (at least 10, and preferably 15 minutes) and intensively. As a result, it will become smooth, uniform, soft and not sticky. We round the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl, which we literally grease with a teaspoon of vegetable oil (I did not indicate it in the ingredients) so that it does not stick to the dishes during fermentation. We send the yeast dough to heat for 1 hour. Where is the best place for dough to roam and what does a warm place mean? There are several options. First of all, in the oven with the light on (it turns out about 28-30 degrees - the ideal temperature for fermenting yeast dough). Then we tighten the bowl with the dough with cling film or cover it with a towel made of natural fabric (linen is best suited) so that the surface does not wind up and does not become covered with a crust. You can also let the dough ferment in the microwave, in which we first bring a glass of water to a boil. The dough will rise with the door closed, and the glass will stand in the same place. Then the bowl does not need to be closed with anything, since the water will evaporate, thereby maintaining the necessary humidity. Just make sure that no one accidentally turns on the microwave, otherwise the dough will disappear and there will be no baking.
8. After 1 hour (time is a relative concept, it may take more or less) the yeast dough on kefir will rise very well, increase in volume by about 2-2.5 times. It is very soft and fluffy. If the dough rises poorly, then you have come across old yeast - increase the fermentation time.
9. We do a light kneading to release excess air, re-round the dough and return to heat for another 40-50 minutes.
10. While the dough is coming up, let's start filling for future pies. We need apricots and sugar. In addition, for blush, we will lubricate the workpieces with egg yolk and milk.
11. Wash the apricots, dry them thoroughly, remove the seeds, and cut the pulp into arbitrary slices. For the filling for this amount of dough, we need 500 grams of prepared apricots.
12. During this time, the yeast dough on kefir will once again rise very well, become even more tender and fluffy. Now you can work with him.
13. We divide the dough into pieces of the same size - I have 15 pieces. We roll each piece into a ball and put it on a board, very lightly sprinkled with flour. If you have not yet gotten your hand in sculpting pies, that is, the process takes a lot of your time, cover all the pieces of dough with a film or towel so that they do not wind up.
14. Let's start forming the pies. Take one ball of dough and flatten it with the palm of your hand. If you want, you can roll it out with a rolling pin - this is not important, since the dough is very tender and pliable, stretches perfectly with your hands.
15. Put a few slices of apricots in the center so that there is as little emptiness as possible inside.
16. Gently sprinkle the apricots with sugar. For all 15 pies, I only needed 3 tablespoons of sugar.
17. Depending on your preferences, we choose a shape for future pies (I have these are traditional boats). We pinch the dough so that the filling is not visible. The yeast dough according to this recipe turns out to be very plastic and perfectly molded. Just a couple of movements and the pie is ready.
18. Gently roll the workpiece in the palms to get an even shape and put it with the seam down. In general, it is not necessary to make pies of this shape - you can make them round, square or triangular. We shape the remaining blanks in the same way.
19. Cover the baking sheet with baking paper and place the blanks on it with the seam down. Cover with a towel or cling film and leave to stand for 25-30 minutes. We immediately turn on the oven to warm up to 180 degrees.
20. To make the apricot pies look beautiful and ruddy, I propose to grease them with egg yolk and milk. Just wiggle it with a fork, add some milk, and the grease is ready. A little secret: If your oven doesn't want to brown your baked goods, add a pinch of powdered sugar to the yolk. Then, during the baking process, the sugar is caramelized and the top of the buns or pies will brown. I used to do this sometimes with baked goods, because the old oven sometimes let me down. We lubricate the workpieces that have already fit well with yolk and send them to the hot oven to bake for about 25-35 minutes at 180 degrees.
21. I have a gas oven, bottom heating, no convection, so I additionally turn on the grill for literally 3-4 minutes. Choose the degree of ruddiness of the pies yourself - someone loves only slightly golden, and someone likes an almost brown crust.
22. Ready-made apricot pies turn out to be so appetizing, aromatic and very tasty. Cook for your health, friends, and bon appetit!