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!
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
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)
While the yeast is activating, take a large mixing bowl and sift your flour to remove any clumps
Once the yeast has activated, pour your milk/yeast liquid into the mixing bowl with flour and stir around
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
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
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
Next, add your bacon and caraway seeds and mix well. Cook for another 1 minute
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
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
First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Once the dough has risen, take it out of your mixing bowl and onto a flat, well-floured surface
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
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
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
Next, take a spoonful of your filling and place it in the middle
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
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
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
Before placing in the oven, brush some egg wash over the top of the bacon pie.
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
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
CoursesSide Dishes
CuisineLatvian
Recipe by Arousing Appetites: Home to the Serious Cook at https://blog.arousingappetites.com/piragi-latvian-bacon-pie/