Closed Ural Pie

Combine 1 kilogram of flour and yeast in a separate container. Mix thoroughly.

I obtain whey by mixing milk and kefir in a 1:1 ratio in a pot and heating it almost to boiling. As a result, I get a lot of whey and delicious cottage cheese, which we strain through cheesecloth. With this dough, you can also make pies.

In a deep pot, combine the whey, eggs, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, and margarine. Mix everything together.

Add flour to the obtained mixture.

Thoroughly mix the resulting mass until it becomes homogeneous.

Add flour until you reach a consistency where you can pinch the dough, and it falls back, leaving only a small trace. First, it's convenient to knead in a pot, then, of course, on the table when the dough becomes very elastic.

Place the dough in a warm place, covered with breathable fabric or gauze, for 1-2 hours. Not with a lid! The dough needs to breathe. During the rising time, it should be deflated 2-3 times. My grandmother did this by shaking the container; I do it by hand. By the time the dough is ready, you should have the filling prepared.

Take a part of the dough with a wet hand and lay it on flour. Roll out a sheet slightly larger than your baking dish. My grandmother made the dough very thick, putting a 1.5 cm layer on the bottom. In my practice, it rises a lot, so I adjust the thickness as desired.

Roll out the dough, wrap it around a rolling pin, and transfer it to a greased baking tray.

We lay out the RAW filling. All filling is placed in the pie in RAW form, necessarily (except for rice). During baking, the ingredients release juice, making the pie very tender. I really love potatoes sliced thin (raw), with mushrooms and sautéed carrots with onions (pre-fried), this is my modification, and I also add a piece of butter to this filling for extra tenderness.

We make a second layer of dough and cover our pie on top.

The edges of the layers should either be pinched or tucked. Patterns are not allowed on the edge of such a pie, as it will rise significantly, and the corners will become dry if the dough is too thick in those areas.

In the original recipe, the surface of the pie is not brushed with egg, only lightly sprinkled with flour.

Place the pie in a preheated oven at about 200 degrees. Baking time depends on the thickness of the pie. We gauge by browning. A thin vegetable pie takes about 45 minutes, while a fish pie or one with thick dough may need around two hours.