Latvian Bacon Buns-Pīrāgi

I love traditions, they evoke sentimental memories of family and friends.  Christmas is my favorite holiday and much of it revolves around food.  One cherished memory is of being at my best friends house when her mother was making these buns.  Her mom is from Germany and her father from Latvia. The smell of these buns baking is so good! One year she was asked to make these and provide a recipe for a Christmas bazaar featuring foods from around the world.  She came up with this recipe even though she never used one.

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup water
2 cups milk, scalded
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp shortening
6 1/2 to 6 3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 tsp onion chopped
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup milk

Soften yeast in warm water. Combine milk, sugar, salt, shortening. Cool to lukewarm. Add 2 cups flour, stir well.  Add softened yeast, stir. Add flour to make moderately stiff dough.  Turn out on lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and satiny (about 8 minutes). Shape into ball, place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover, let rise in warm place until double in bulk (1 1/2 hour). Punch down. Let rise again until double (45 min.) While dough is rising fry bacon and onion until most of fat has fried out but not crisp, drain. When done, dice bacon until in small pieces. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top and mix. Place in refrigerator until ready to use. Place dough on floured surface, roll out with rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with doughnut cutter with center removed.

Put about 1/2 tsp of bacon mixture in the center of each circle, fold each circle in half and pinch edges together. Place buns on greased cookie sheet (I used parchment that I greased), cover, let rise in warm place until almost double. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush each bun with a mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1/2 cup milk. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

The "fancy" naan/roti

Ummadam asked for this recipe so here it is:

2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
8 cups flour--I use 4 c. bread flour and 4 c. whole wheat
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 c. yogurt
2 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. melted butter

Sprinkle yeast into warm water and set aside. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. In separate bowl beat the eggs, then blend in yorgurt and mil. Make a well in the flour and add the yeast and liquid ingredients. Stir in one direction until you have a soft dough that is hard to stir; add more flour if needed.

Spread melted butter on work surface. Grease hands with butter and gather up dough and turn onto surface. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Rebutter surface and hands as needed.

Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to cover dough surface. Cover with a towel and place in warm place. Let dough rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.

Warm a skillet or tava on the stove over medium heat. Knead dough briefly. Lightly flour surface and hands. Take a ball of dough, about tennis ball size. Roll into ball and flatten, then roll out into circle with rolling pin, turning dough 90 degrees after a few rolls to keep shape. Then I flip the circle back and forth between my hands to enlarge and thin. Put bread on skillet/tava, when the dough starts to bubble and there is some brown on the underside flip bread over and cook other side.

The dough refridgerates really well and actually made softer bread I thought

Roti/Naan

I've been experimenting with different roti recipes using the amounts, approximately, that my MIL uses. I have one recipe that uses milk, eggs, and yogurt which is super good but not as healthy. Here's a pic:



The recipe:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat durum (atta) flour
1 1/2 cup bread flour (it has extra gluten, very important)
1/2 tsp. yeast
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup warm (not hot) water

Mix together and knead until smooth and elastic. Let sit for about an hour before using. It can sit longer, in fact we put unused portions in the fridge for the next day. Taking a ball of dough a bit smaller than a tennis ball pat into a flat circle. On a floured surface roll until about a half centimeter thick then place it on the flat of your hand and slap it back and forth to stretch it to desired thinness. You can also just roll it but this works best for me. Place on a dry hot tava, or pan, cook until it has some brown spots then turn and cook other side.

I use the bread flour because it makes a softer bread.