Pies and pies with spinach are baked in many countries. You can make pies and pies with spinach using yeast dough
or with puff pastry. In this case, the main thing is the filling, not the dough. Moreover, the filling can consist either of spinach alone, or spinach can be combined with other products, for example, rice, eggs, cheese, asparagus, cottage cheese.
It is best to use fresh spinach for pies or pies. But if you can’t buy fresh spinach, then take frozen spinach. In this case, the spinach must first be thawed.
Preparing yeast-free dough
You can prepare yeast-free dough in just 10-15 minutes if you prepare the ingredients in advance.
- First of all, take the butter out of the refrigerator and measure out the specified amount of animal fat.
- Eggs and milk should also not be cold, but at room temperature.
- Meanwhile, take a sieve and sift two cups of flour through it directly onto the table or into a large bowl.
- Cut the butter into several pieces and place in flour.
- Grind the butter with a knife until crumbly, right in the flour.
- Add salt and sugar to the resulting lumps of butter and flour, stir well with a wooden spoon.
- Then prepare a pan, fill it with water and boil the liquid.
- Place a bowl with the prepared dough components on top of the pan, creating the effect of a steam bath.
- Be sure to stir the contents of the bowl with a wooden spoon.
- When the butter begins to melt and combine easily with the flour, remove the bowl and place it on a cutting board.
- Gradually add warm milk into the heated mixture in a small stream.
- Mix everything thoroughly first with a spoon. Then place the dough on a floured table and quickly knead with your hands (up to 5 minutes).
- Form a small “ball” from the yeast-free base and put it back into the bowl or pan.
- Cover the dish with a plastic bag and send the dough to “rest” in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.
How to cook spinach pies in the oven
Before you start cooking, remember that the dough will take about 2-2.5 hours, so plan your day in advance. We start with preparation. To do this, mix the egg with sugar and stir with a fork.
Now let's start preparing the dough. Knead the yeast in a cup.
Dilute the yeast with half the milk and stir. Place the dough in a warm place.
Pour the remaining milk into a separate saucepan.
We see that the dough has begun to foam - this is a good sign, which means everything is going as it should.
Pour the resulting dough into a saucepan with milk and stir. We also send our eggs with sugar and vegetable oil there, adding some salt.
Gradually sift the flour into the pan, stirring at the same time with a spoon. The dough becomes thick, so it becomes increasingly difficult to stir it with a spoon. It's easier to do it by hand.
We recommend for preparation:
Samsa with pumpkin made from puff pastry
Knead the dough thoroughly so that there are no lumps of flour.
Cover the pan with a towel and put it in a warm place for 40-50 minutes. After this time, we see if our dough rises. In theory, the dough should increase in size by one and a half times. As soon as the dough has risen, beat it with your hands, cover it again with a towel, and put it in a warm place. In total, the dough should rise twice.
After another 40 minutes we see that the dough has risen a second time - now you can start cooking.
Making healthy filling
The next step is to prepare the spinach filling for the pies.
- To do this, you first need to rinse the greens well under running water.
- Then place the spinach on a cutting board and cut off the tails.
- Then transfer the product to paper towels and dry a little.
- Place frozen spinach in a colander to thaw and drain off excess liquid.
- Chop the dried spinach into large strips.
- Meanwhile, boil a small pot of water. Add chopped spinach to boiling water, cover the pan with a lid and set aside for 3 minutes. After the time has passed, place the greens in a colander (sieve) to remove all the liquid. Now squeeze the spinach with your hands and place it in a bowl.
- Then hard-boil two eggs, cool and peel them. Chop the eggs as finely as possible and place in a small bowl.
- Cut the cheese into small cubes.
- Add chopped eggs and chopped cheese to a bowl with spinach.
- All that remains is to add salt and pepper to the filling and mix gently. A useful layer for pies is ready.
Forming the pies
- Place the chilled dough on a table sprinkled with flour and knead.
- Then form small “sausages” 2-3 cm thick from the yeast-free base.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the “sausages” into pieces. Knead each piece of dough into a flat cake in your hands.
- Place a portion of spinach, eggs and cheese filling in the middle of the dough.
- Pinch the edges of the cake with wet fingers, flatten it on both sides, giving the cake an oval shape.
- Place the resulting blanks on a cutting board, previously powdered with flour or greased with vegetable fat.
- Also, semi-finished products can be frozen and used if necessary.
How to make Spinach and Feta Pies
1. To make the filling, heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onion and sauté until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add finely chopped spinach, add salt and fry for about 2 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Mix with 1 beaten egg, crumbled Feta cheese and dill. Cool the filling.
3. In a food processor or using an electric mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese and cream. Add flour and salt, beat. Place the dough on a well-floured surface and divide into 2 parts. Form each piece into a disk and wrap in plastic. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4. On a well-floured surface, roll out one disk of dough into a circle about 30 cm. The dough should be thin, but not transparent. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using an inverted cup (about 12cm diameter), cut out about 3 circles from each piece of dough. After cutting, collect all scraps of dough and roll out the dough again. Cut out circles. Place 1/4 cup filling in the center of each circle.
5. Moisten the edges of the dough with water. Fold the dough into a semicircle shape. Pinch the edges together and press with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. The pies can be frozen at this step. Place the pies on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for a few minutes. Prick the tops of the pies twice with a fork.
6. Beat the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the pies with the egg mixture.
7. Bake the pies for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. The pies can be refrigerated and frozen, then reheated in the microwave.
Baking pies
You can prepare spinach pies in any convenient way, for example, in the oven, slow cooker or in a frying pan.
- To make oven pies, you need to place the pies on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil and leave for 15-20 minutes.
- Then coat the top of the semi-finished products with egg yolk. At the same time, heat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the pies until golden brown.
- After 25-30 minutes, check the baked goods for doneness with a wooden stick.
If you cook pies in a slow cooker, be sure to line the bottom of the bowl with baking paper.
- Grease the paper with vegetable oil.
- Place semi-finished products on top of the parchment.
- Using the “Baking/Cake” program, bake the pies for 12-15 minutes on each side.
And fried pies, as always, will surprise you with their ease of preparation. It is enough to place the pies in a hot frying pan with sunflower oil, and fry the semi-finished products alternately on each side until cooked (about 7-10 minutes depending on the size of the semi-finished product).
Baking with spinach is especially tasty when warm. Therefore, cool the finished pies for 5-7 minutes and can be served. These pies can be served with sour cream or cheese sauce.
Spinach pies
Spinach pies are a delicious pastry that is very easy to prepare.
There are no problems with the dough at all - this is perhaps the simplest and most successful recipe of all the recipes that I have ever tried. And considering that I have a difficult relationship with dough in life, this recipe was just a godsend for me, so now it’s circled in a red frame in my recipe notebook. For these pies, you can use any filling that you like most - this maybe potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, peas, herbs, cheese, meat... I took spinach (I love it very much) and homemade cheese. By the way, the dough for spinach pies is made with whey, which is what was left after making the cheese. And considering that I cook cheese quite often, I still have quite a decent amount of whey left. And it, in turn, can be used in different ways, for example, to bake pancakes or pancakes. But let's get back to the pies. They turn out tender and tasty, with thin dough and a lot of filling. Complexity
– easy
Total cooking time
– 1.5 hours, of which 20 minutes of active actions
Ingredients:
- Corn flour – 100 g
- Wheat flour – 200 g
- Unscented vegetable oil – ½ cup
- Salt - to taste
- Whey – ½ cup
- Spinach – 1 large bunch
- Onion – 2 pcs.
- Vegetable oil for frying – 3 tbsp.
- Cheese – 150 g
- Ground pepper - to taste
Progress:
First, let's prepare the dough.
To do this, sift both types of flour into a deep bowl. You can take only wheat. Add vegetable oil and warm whey. And if you don’t have whey, you can replace it with water in this recipe. Knead the dough with your hands. It mixes perfectly, without problems, so there will be no difficulties here. Next, we make a bun out of the dough and let it stand in the refrigerator for half an hour. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Wash the spinach. Let's cut it. Fry finely chopped onion in vegetable oil.
Then, 2 minutes before turning off, throw the chopped spinach into the pan. Cover with a lid - the spinach should settle. Salt. Remove from heat, let cool slightly and add cheese (you can use any). Mix. After half an hour, take the dough out of the refrigerator, divide it into small pieces, then roll each of them out quite thinly. Place the filling on one edge and roll it up. I rolled them in the form of a cigar, but you can roll them in some other way - as you like. You just need to take into account that the dough is particularly sticky, so if you want to seal them like ordinary pies, this is unlikely to work. Cover a baking sheet with parchment and lay out the pies. Place in a hot oven. Bake for 40 minutes at 180. That's all, spinach and cheese pies are ready! Bon appetit! To receive the best articles, subscribe to Alimero's pages on Yandex Zen, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook and Pinterest!
