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19 recipes

Tula pryanik

Tula, a few hours south of Moscow, has pressed these slabs in carved wooden boards since the seventeenth century, and a pryanik stamped with the town's crest or a samovar is still the souvenir every visitor carries home. It is made from a cooked dough: honey, sugar and butter are warmed with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove, then flour is beaten in, giving a dense, soft and fragrant cake. A layer of thick plum jam runs through the middle and a thin sugar glaze sets white and crisp on top. Cut it into fingers and serve with black tea. The usual slip is a runny jam that leaks from the seams, so use a stiff jam or cook it down first. Chef's tip: wrap the glazed cake and leave it overnight; it softens and the spice deepens, which is why Tula bakers never sell it warm.

85 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pirog s kapustoi

Sunday baking in a Russian village house often meant a long rectangular pie like this, cut into thick slabs and carried warm to the table with a bowl of soup or a glass of kefir. Soft milk dough wraps white cabbage braised slowly in butter with onion until sweet and pale gold, folded through chopped hard-boiled egg and dill. Leftover slices are just as good cold the next day, which is why it ends up in lunch boxes and on train journeys. Where most people go wrong is a wet filling that steams the crust soggy from inside: cook the cabbage until the pan is dry and let it cool completely. Chef's tip: brush the hot crust with butter and cover it with a clean tea towel for ten minutes, so the top softens the way Russian grandmothers like it.

145 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gubadia

Weddings, Eid and the arrival of honoured guests in Tatarstan call for gubadia, a high round pie that is cut at the table like a cake and served with tea. Inside sit neat layers of buttery rice, kort – Tatar curd cooked down until rosy and fudge-sweet – raisins and chopped hard-boiled egg, under a domed lid of soft yeast dough. Many families add a layer of minced meat with onion; this is the meat-free version, as many sweet tea-table gubadias are. Kort is hard to buy outside the region, so you make it here from tvorog (check the label if you need it rennet-free). Where most people go wrong is a dry pie: every layer needs its share of melted butter. Chef's tip: let the baked pie stand for twenty minutes before cutting so the layers settle and come away in clean wedges.

180 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shangi

From the Urals across to Siberia, shangi turn up on Sunday breakfast tables, at village markets and in the lunch bags of fishermen and hunters. They are flat rounds of soft yeast dough topped, not filled, with a thick swirl of buttery mashed potato beaten with egg, then brushed with sour cream so the top bakes into golden, slightly crisp peaks. Eat them warm with tea, milk or a bowl of mushroom soup. Older northern versions used barley dough or a millet topping, and sweet shangi carry tvorog instead. The usual slip is spreading the potato right to the edge; leave a rim so the dough rises around it like a frame. Chef's tip: brush the baked shangi with melted butter and stack them in a covered pot for ten minutes, which keeps them soft the way Siberians like them.

115 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mochenaya brusnika

In Siberian and northern villages a barrel of lingonberries standing in water was the winter larder, ladled out to sit beside roast game or meat, a plate of potatoes and mushrooms, or a bowl of porridge. The tart ruby berries keep thanks to their own natural acidity and only a light syrup; after a few weeks they turn faintly fizzy, sweet-sour and refreshing, and the pink liquid is drunk cold as a drink. This is a fridge version: cooled spiced syrup is poured over clean berries in a jar, which then waits three to four weeks before opening. A common mistake is pouring the syrup on hot, which cooks the berries so they burst and turn dull. Chef's tip: frozen lingonberries work well too, and an apple cut in wedges and tucked into the jar soaks up the flavour and is a treat of its own.

20 minRussianBasicsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kulich

Easter Saturday queues outside Russian churches are full of baskets holding a tall kulich, a few dyed eggs and a pot of paskha, all waiting for the priest's blessing; the bread is then cut in rounds at breakfast after the night service. The crumb is rich with butter and yolks, scented with cardamom, vanilla and lemon zest and dotted with raisins and candied orange, under a white cap of icing and coloured sprinkles. Many families plump the raisins in rum; here they soak in hot tea, so the loaves are alcohol-free. The usual slip is underbaking: the tall tops brown early, so tent them with foil and test with a long skewer. Chef's tip: cool the baked loaves lying on their sides on a folded towel, turning now and then, so the soft crowns do not sink.

300 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vatrushka

Bakery counters from Moscow to small Ryazan towns stack these golden rounds beside the tea urn, and a warm one with a glass of milk is the classic after-school snack. The soft, lightly sweet enriched dough is pressed into a deep well and filled with tvorog beaten with yolk, sugar and vanilla, which bakes into a set, creamy centre with a gentle tang. Tvorog is usually acid-set, but check the label if you need it rennet-free; a well-drained curd cheese works too. The usual slip is a wet filling: watery curd bubbles over the rim and leaves a hollow bun, so drain it well and add the spoon of semolina. Chef's tip: press the well with the base of a small floured glass, so the walls stay even and the rim rises tall around the cheese.

117 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kartofdzhyn

Ossetian pies come in threes at every celebration in Vladikavkaz, stacked on one plate for the sun, earth and water, and kartofdzhyn, with potato and cheese, is the everyday family favourite of North Ossetia. Soft kefir-yeast dough is wrapped around a ball of filling and patted flat by hand into a wide, thin round, so dough and filling are each barely a centimetre thick, then baked hot and soaked with butter. Ossetian cheese is a fresh brined cheese made with animal rennet; for a vegetarian pie use a feta-style or young brined cheese labelled vegetarian. The usual slip is overfilling, which makes the pie burst as you flatten it; aim for about the same weight of dough and filling. Chef's tip: stack the hot pies and butter each one, so the butter soaks through and they stay supple.

90 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Salted saffron milk caps

Northern Russians rank ryzhiki, the orange saffron milk caps of the pine woods, above almost every other mushroom, and salted ones from around Arkhangelsk once travelled to the tsar's table. Salted, they keep their bright colour, turn firm and juicy with a clean, resinous taste, and are served with thin onion rings, sunflower oil and hot boiled potatoes; for non-vegans a spoon of sour cream is classic. Old cellars dry-salted them raw for months; this safer fridge version blanches the caps briefly and keeps them in a measured brine in the fridge, ready in about a week. Only use mushrooms identified by an experienced forager or bought from a trusted seller. Where most people go wrong is guessing the salt; too little lets spoilage start, so weigh it. Chef's tip: the caps bruise green where handled, which is normal, so don't worry when the edges darken.

30 minRussianBasicsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kispiño

Pressed in a fist so each one carries the marks of the cook's fingers, kispiño are small, dense quinoa cakes from the Puno highlands, steamed and then left to dry so they keep for weeks on journeys, herding trips and pilgrimages. Traditional ones are bound with a little lime water (from cal, the mineral) and fat; this home version uses oil and a pinch of aniseed and sugar, so they're vegan and pleasantly savoury-sweet. They're firm and chewy, a little like a grain cake, and good with hot tea, coca tea or a soup on a cold day. The common mistake is making the dough too wet, so the cakes slump in the steamer; it should feel like damp sand that holds its shape when squeezed. Ground quinoa is quinoa flour; grind your own from rinsed, dried and toasted grain, or buy it ready ground. Chef's tip: toast the ground quinoa in a dry pan first until it smells nutty, which takes away any bitterness.

55 minPeruvianBakingVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

King kong

Named, the story goes, after the giant ape because of its size when the film reached Peru, the king kong is Lambayeque's proudest sweet: thick, crumbly biscuit layers stacked with manjar blanco, a sticky pineapple jam and a peanut fudge, then cut into heavy slabs. Shops in Lambayeque and Chiclayo sell them by the kilo in boxes, and travellers carry them home as gifts. It is very sweet, buttery and dense, so a slice goes a long way with black coffee. This home version makes the manjar blanco from condensed and evaporated milk to save hours, then turns half of it into the peanut layer. The usual mistake is overbaking the biscuit until it is hard; take it out as soon as the edges are pale gold, as it firms up while it cools. It is a project, so make the fillings first and let them cool. Chef's tip: wrap the finished king kong and leave it overnight before cutting; the layers settle and soften into each other.

150 minPeruvianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Turrón de Doña Pepa

Every October, the month of the Señor de los Milagros processions in Lima, bakeries and street sellers pile their trays with turrón de Doña Pepa: layers of crumbly anise-flavoured sticks drenched in a dark syrup of chancaca cooked with fruit and spices, topped with a storm of coloured sprinkles. Popular lore credits it to Josefa Marmanillo, a woman from the Cañete valley who is said to have made it in thanks after the procession. It is sticky, crunchy and soft at once, with orange and clove in the syrup. Its downfall is usually runny syrup that soaks the sticks into mush; it needs to reach a thick, threading stage before it goes on. Chancaca is sold as cones or blocks in Latin shops; panela or dark muscovado also work. Some coloured sprinkles contain gelatin, so check the label. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; the syrup sets and the sticks soften just enough to slice neatly.

120 minPeruvianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chajá

Chajá was created in 1927 at a bakery in Paysandú, a city on the Uruguay River, and named after a local bird whose feathers look as fluffy as its crumbly meringue coat. Today it's Uruguay's birthday and celebration cake: layers of light sponge soaked in peach syrup, filled with whipped cream, peaches and dulce de leche, then covered in crushed meringue. It's sweet, soft and crunchy at once, best on the day it's assembled. Chef's tip: soak the sponge but not too much; it should feel moist, not wet, or the layers slide.

90 minParaguayanBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pirozhki

Pirozhki, little oval pies of soft yeast dough, are what a Russian babushka has waiting on the kitchen table when the grandchildren arrive, and what used to be sold warm from steel carts at Moscow metro stations. They are eaten with a bowl of soup, packed for the train, or simply grabbed from the plate all afternoon. Fillings change with the season; the two most loved meatless ones are buttery cabbage with chopped egg and creamy mashed potato with fried onion and dill. Chef's tip: let the fillings cool completely before shaping; warm filling softens the dough and the buns tear and leak.

85 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sharlotka

Sharlotka is the cake every Russian family bakes in September, when dachas around Moscow and Saint Petersburg drown in Antonovka apples. It is nothing like Polish szarlotka with its shortcrust: here the tin is packed with sliced tart apples and a feather-light batter of whisked eggs, sugar and flour is poured over, so it bakes into an airy, crackly-topped sponge holding a soft apple layer. Only four ingredients, and it is on the table in under an hour with tea from the samovar. Chef's tip: whisk the eggs and sugar for a full 8 minutes until pale and tripled; that air is the only raising agent and a short whisk gives a flat, rubbery cake.

60 minRussianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Arabian date pinwheels

Crumbly, buttery biscuit dough is rolled out, spread with a soft date filling flavoured with cinnamon and lemon, rolled into logs, sliced and baked into pretty pinwheels. They make a big batch of 50 and keep well in an airtight tin. Serve with tea, or with ice cream as a dessert.

60 minMiddle EasternBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lebanese date cake

A soft, moist cake made without eggs: self-raising flour and brown sugar are rubbed with butter, then mixed with milk and sour cream and studded with chopped dates, raisins and pistachios, with a warm hint of nutmeg and vanilla. Lovely with tea or served warm with cream.

70 minMiddle EasternBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ma'amoul

Ma'amoul are delicate shortbread-like pastries made for Eid and Easter across the Middle East. A soft, rose-scented butter dough is wrapped around a filling of dates, walnuts, almonds and pistachios cooked with cinnamon, marked with a fork, baked pale and dusted with icing sugar. Makes 35; they keep well in a tin.

80 minMiddle EasternBaking
by KrazyBadal 1 views

Semolina cake

A moist eggless cake made with semolina, coconut and yogurt, baked with slivered almonds on the bottom and top and moistened with orange juice. Serve with coconut ice cream or custard sauce.

45 minMiddle EasternBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views