Piragi are traditional Latvian bacon buns. Filled with sauteed onion and bacon. Made by my grandmother, myself and now my son. This recipe is a family tradition.
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I thought it only appropriate that my 200th post on Belly Rumbles is one about a food that is close to my heart. Close due to happy memories, the deliciousness and the fact it is a family recipe.
A recipe that is passed down the generations in all households of Latvian descent. Even today Josh whipped up two batches of piragi to share amongst his friends tomorrow as they partake in their gaming marathon.
It does make this mother proud that he does an amazing job and that his rolling of these little buns has almost reached my standard.
One of my earliest food memories was standing in my great grandmother’s kitchen in Merrylands, Sydney. My grandmother and great aunt would also be present. It would have been school holidays, a day or two before Christmas Eve. grandma would have been babysitting me while Mum and Dad were at work.
The kitchen would be full of glorious cooking smells, traditional delights being prepared for the family’s Christmas Eve feast. The table that dominated the tiny kitchen, would be covered with flour and piles of dough. Nimble fingers shaped buns filled with bacon and onion perfectly. I was witnessing a piragis production line, to which I was welcomed to join with open arms.
Piragi are a Latvian tradition. Probably the most well know traditional Latvian food. Small torpedo shaped buns filled with a bacon mixture. Simple, but ever so delicious and smell incredible when baking. What seemed like hundreds would be made from that kitchen in the lead up to Christmas Eve.
When the extended family was all together on Christmas eve, the piragi would disappear quicker than could be passed around. Hungrily devoured by all. There would be bags frozen to be given to family members to take home with them. After a late night of celebrations the take home piragi then became an easy and traditional Christmas Day breakfast.
When my grandmother passed away, there wasn’t a recipe in her handwritten cookbook for these. Like a good Latvian girl I was supposed to have paid attention, and instinctively have known how to make these addictive buns. Of course I didn’t, and as Dad was a male he was never taught and no help.
Through memory, trial and error, I eventually recreated my family’s recipe. Even though Josh is now a master at making and shaping piragi, the recipe is written down for future generations.
Really hope you enjoy these tasty little buns of bacon as much as my family do. Is there a traditional recipe that has been passed down through the generations in your family? If there is I would love to hear about it.
Sara xxx
Ingredients
- 350 grams bacon rashes diced finely
- 2 brown onions finely diced
- Ground pepper to taste
- 7 grams dry instant yeast
- ¼ cup warm water
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar, superfine sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 3 ½ cups plain flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- In a heavy non stick pan sauté onions and bacon until the onions are translucent and most of the bacon fat has rendered.
- Add ground pepper to taste.
- Leave this mixture to cool completely while you are making the dough. I usually make the bacon/onion mix the day before and leave it in my fridge until I am ready to use it. The bacon mixture is easier to work with when cold.
- Place yeast and water in a small bowl, put aside for the yeast to activate. It will froth up.
- In a small saucepan add butter, milk and sugar. Warm over a low heat until butter has melted and sugar has dissolved into the milk.
- When milk mixture has cooled to lukewarm stir through beaten egg, yeast and water.
- Place two cups of the plain flour and salt in a large bowl, pour liquid over and stir to combine.
- Once combined add the remaining flour. Mix until all ingredients have come together, then leave to rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.
- Once rested turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 - 10 minutes.
- Place dough back in to a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Leave dough to raise, around 1½ hours or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven 180 deg C (360 deg F)
- Once dough is ready, start pulling off a walnut size pieces of dough. Work them in to a ball in your hand then tease them out to a circle. Place a tablespoon of the bacon mixture, and bring the edges of the dough together. Seal the bun in a torpedo shape.
- Place formed buns on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.
- Mix the beaten egg and water together to make an egg wash. Brush egg wash mixture on buns. Place buns in oven and bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.Repeat with the remainder of the mixture and dough.
- Once out of the oven they are ready to eat.
- Piragi can also be frozen once cooled.
Nutrition
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Kelly Czap
My mom is Latvian – I am the only one who still makes her recipe. She uses canned evaporated milk (maybe because that was what she got used to using during the war) in the bread with 2 eggs, and then another egg to close up dough and paint on top. She also uses finely chopped ham with the bacon and onion. Thank you for your recipe post.
Sara McCleary
Hi Kelly, I think you may be right about the evaporated milk being a remnant of the war. I am so happy to hear you are still making them. It is great to know that these bacon buns are being made outside of Latvia.
Cathy Smith
My ex-husbands father came over from Latvia during the war and his grandmother always made piragis and we’d come home with a tinful everytime we’d visit. She never gave anyone her recipe and we’ve been trying to duplicate it ever since. This is the closest we’ve come. I do know that she used bacon drippings in her dough so I switched some with part of the butter. So so good. Thank you so much!
Sara McCleary
Hi Cathy
I am loving all the different stories that this piragi post is attracting from readers that have Latvian blood in their families. Bacon fat to the dough makes perfect sense, it would create a slightly richer dough.
My father is adamant that my great grandmother added sour cream to her dough and I have been playing around with that. So far it is a winner and I will be updating the recipe above to show the two kinds of doughs.
So happy you found Belly Rumbles and that you had success with the piragi recipe. The kind of reader feedback I love! Thank you 🙂
Michelle
Hi, I want to know if it’s Ok to add fresh dill to the bacon/onion piragi filling, or is this too bizarre? It makes so much sense to me- I love dill on so many things (I had a Latvian dad and my anglo mum learned to make piragi when we were kids: so much yum, and I’m trying to continue) As boiled potatoes+ butter + fresh dill = AMAZING, is fresh dill OK?. Also, what about Latvian vegans ( this would be hard…. mushrooms/ onions?)
Sara
Hi Michelle
Firstly I want to say, when it comes to personal taste, there is no wrong. If all taste buds were the same what a boring old world we would live in.
As far as piragi go with the addition of dill. It is something I would never ever do, as it would change the whole taste profile of piragi. I’m a purist when it comes to my bacon buns.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE dill. I believe it runs through my veins with sour cream. But it has no place in my piragi. Whern you make your next batch of piragi, why don’t you set some of the bacon mixture aside and add a little dill to that. Try it, test it, you may be on to something amazing. Do let me know how you go!
Now in regard to Latvian vegans…….. surely there is no such thing?? 😉
Mushrooms and onions would be a great alternative filing, but you would have to find a completely different dough, as normal piragi dough has milk, butter and egg in it. By the time you reinvent the wheel it would be so removed from piragi, I would just make some vegan mushroom and onion tarts.
Denise
Just want to make sure I understand…the onion & bacon are left to cool in the rendering. Then placed in dough, fats & all? Thanks for helping to clarify proceedure.
Sara
Hi Denise, Yes this is correct. You are slow cooking the bacon and onion. The bacon fat renders, but the liquid also reduces. I leave my mixture to cool for easier handling. Piragi are rich little flavour bomb buns. Not an every day food that is for sure!
Diana
Piragi have been a family recipe since I was a toddler…I’m now in my 60s. My mother always made them for special occasions. Now that she’s gone I’ve kept up the tradition. I just made a batch today. When I make the bacon and onion filling I always start by sautéing the bacon first. When the fat has melted in the frying pan, I pour it off into a jar. I then return the bacon to the stove and add the diced onion. By pouring off the excess fat, and there’s plenty, the bacon and onion actually sauté nicely…otherwise they seem to boil in the fat, taking forever to brown. My mother’s recipe also called for 1/2 tsp of nutmeg in the bacon mixture.
Sara
Hi Diana
The festive season is here and piragi making is starting to happen!
I’m so glad you have kept up the tradition. I have made sure that my son now is an excellent piragi baker,. In fact his folding puts mine to shame!
Thank you for sharing your method, I always love to find out how others make piragi. They really are quite personal with recipes being passed down from one generation to another.
I don’t allow my bacon or onions to brown as this changes the flavour profile by allowing the mixture to caramelise. It’s a personal taste preference and how my great grandmother and grandmother did it. What I have worked out over the years everyone does it differently and they all tase amazing!
I use full rashers of bacon but if they are extra fatty I may leave some of the fat out. Like you I cook the bacon first and let the fat render, then I add my onions. Then saute the onions and bacon gently until any liquid and fat evaporate. Leaving a rich bacon and onion mixture.
Yours is the first recipe I have come across that includes nutmeg. Such a lovely twist.
Cheers Sara
Chris
Hi Sara and thanks for the Piragi recipe. We Aussie kids grew up with a Latvian family next door and was our first close contact with post war European settlement. Our fondest memories were those when they had family celebrations as without fail a large plate of Piragi would find its way to us. I can still taste them now so many decades on…yumm!
Your images are exactly as I remember and am making my first batch now, can’t wait until they come out of the oven.
Sara
Hi Chris, thank you for dropping in and I hope that your piragi were a success. I have to admit, I never get sick of these delicious bacon buns. Tasty and such a great part of my family food heritage.
Cyndi Goorsky
I just finished a huge batch for Christmas morning. My grandmother’s 2nd husband whom she married before I was born was from Latvia. Every Christmas since I can remember they made these pockets of joy. I have been making them for the 35 years since they both passed away together in 1984. Being the good Dutch girl from southern California, I also make Olly Bollen as well Christmas morning. Hopefully my sons will take the lead when i am gone. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Cyndi Goorsky
Hemet, California.
Sara
Hi Cyndi
I hope you had an amazing Christmas, it sounds like you had a delicious one especially with the Olly Bollen! I’m sure your sons will master the art and keep the tradition going. I have found out sons are often guided by their stomachs. Josh’s piragi are now often a better shape than mine!
Wishing you a wonderful New Year.
Chrissie
Hi have just found this recipe and tried it, my mother was Latvian and her and a Latvian friend of the family would make loads of them every birthday and holiday, they have become the family’s favorites. She also made caraway seed buns and cinnamon rolls using the same dough, all delicious. It wasn’t until she was in her 80’s that my children urged me to write down the recipe before it was too late, she always made them from memory. Mine never turn out quite the same though – she had a very warm kitchen and huge aga that was great for proving dough. Your recipe is slightly different, Mum used cream and less butter in hers, but the result is perfectly good. Thanks!
Sara
I’m so glad you enjoyed them.
Liz Nall
Hi Sara,
Thanks for this recipe as my 92 yo mother in law (Latvian) was telling me about them so will try them for this Christmas.
She also mentioned a cheesecake ? Slice which had a bread base. Have you heard of that or have recipe?
She said it was a Christmas and special occasion staple.
Thanks. Liz
Sara
Hi Liz
Thank you for dropping in. Glad to hear that you will be making them and I do hope that your mother in law enjoys them at Christmas. I will be making a couple of batches myself, they are a Christmas staple for us.
I think the cheesecake your MIL is referring to is a Latvian cheesecake called biezpienmaize. I will be making it for Belly Rumbles in the not too distant future, so stay tuned!
Liz Nall
Hi Sara. I didn’t get to make the
Piragi last year but I’m determined to get there this year.
The recipe states plain flour, As it is a bun do you use bread flour or normal plain flour?
Thanks.
Sara
Hi Liz
They are a labour of love. I hope you do get around to making this year. BTW they freeze as well.
I use normal plain flour. Mainly as that is what my grandmother and great grandmother used. Bread or 00 flour wasn’t a thing back then.
In theory though, bread flour should be the better choice……. In practice, I need to make a batch using it to see how they go 😉
Alan Gynn
Both my grandparents were Latvian and I remember as a child my Nan making these and always looked forward to going to nanny’s because as soon as we walked in there was always some waiting for us on the table and they were unbelievable sadly she passed away when I was 9 years old and although my mum had the recipe she could never get them just like nanny’s they are one of my favourite childhood memories ??
Sara
Alan I feel your mum’s pain. My father keeps telling mine aren’t as good as my great grandmother’s piragi.
Lynn
Hi! I was wondering where the salt plays into the recipe? I’ve read it twice but can’t seem to find the step where it gets added. I assume it’s with the flour?, step 8 maybe? Looking forward to making these for my Latvian-born MIL, thanks for the recipe!
Sara
Hi Lynn
Thank you for pointing that out to me. I have amended the recipe to show where the salt is added. salt is added with the flour before pouring in the liquids. Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Shelby vargas
I’m so glad i found this! My (very) Latvian grandmother passed this week and i so desperately wanted to do something before our big celebration of life party we will have when we’re all together. Exactly how she used to make them, and of course… never wrote down! Thank you so much!
Sarma Burdeu
Mum never made these as she had a friend who kept us supplied, so I never had a family recipe. I so want to master this bc they are soooo delicious and my adult son is keen to learn to keep the tradition going. I’m looking forward to following your recipe and hoping they turn out better than my last, disasterous, attempt.
Trudi
My first husband was Latvian. I love these rolls – his Mom made them all the time. Thanks so much for the recipe. And they freeze so well!
Carmel
Thank you so much for your recipe Sara. We grew up looking forward to these delicious bacon buns given to us at Christmas and other occasions throughout the year. My brothers Latvian mother-in-law used to make huge batches of them, and they were amazing. Now I can give them a try!
Trish
Thanks Sara! I have been making these since my beautiful mother-in-law passed away many years ago. I’ve been using a US recipe which were never ‘quite right’. This year my daughter and I will using your recipe and very much looking forward to our yummy Xmas Eve. Priec?gus Ziemassv?tkus!
Angela Krumins
One more thing, buy large joints of bacon you can boil, add onions whole, black pepper corns whole, bay leaves too, do not add salt, no need, once the boiled bacon has cooked slowly, take it out and let it cool right down, then chop into small cubes.
You will get a much bigger batch and value for money, I can smell that bacon cooking right now, hahaha enjoy..
Gundega Korsts
Wow — We never boiled the bacon for our piragi. That liquid must make great stock for soup. We pan-fried a 2:1 combination of bacon and what in the USA is called Canadian bacon (smoked boneless pork butt).
An American Latvian mutt
our family uses 2:1 nueskes bacon and Canadian bacon or ham.
Bless you for doing this and sharing. So good.
Gundega Korsts
Sara — You’ve done beautifully at recreating a recipe. That is in fact how traditional cooking was done through all those centuries when literacy was reserved for special purposes — certainly not for writing down the learn-at-my-side truths of life. –GK (among the youngest of those who left Latvia near the end of WWII).
Angela Krumins
My father was a Latvian, he actually made these for us, he would spend hours in the kitchen and bake hundreds just before Christmas, they smell fantastic while baking in the oven, you can actually eat them hot or cold, when we where children we use to pop some in the microwave, for about half a min, and they where fantastic, especially on a cold winters day. Every one should try these, I love them…
Karin Barton
My mother’s side of the family is Latvian, so of course Piragi always have been and always will be a family favourite. My Aunt, who is English, has made them with reasonable success. I did want to emphasize the importance of what was said on previous comments on the blog: WRITE DOWN the old family recipes before it is too late. We have sparse notes on Oma’s Piragi, so it will be a little trial and error to make them taste as wonderful as hers. Other family members who may have helped are also no longer with us. I absolutely love cooking and baking, but have never attempted yeast bakery, probably because my husband has been the one to excel in baking bread, rolls and Danish Pastries.
Finding your post, even a few years since it was written, has spurred me on to give your recipe a go. I want to be able to preserve and pass on the tradition and ability to make them, to my own adult children.
Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse)
I remember reading about these somewhere on your blog before…and what struck me, as it does now, is that passing food down the generations makes for this intangible link between us and those who came before. Although the characters continue to change, the story and ending remain the same =)
As with Phuoc, my family doesn’t have recipes as such *sigh* I knew only 2 of my grandparents, one of whom despised cooking and the other was too old to cook by the time I got to know him. And, as I expect to be raising my future children outside of their own culture, I guess I’ll have to start writing things down!
Sara
Hi ChopinandMysaucepan, it really is important to document family recipes, and glad I am doing so.
Hi YaYa, the bond is what makes them so special.
Hi Phuoc, thank you, Ii must admit most of my cooking these days is, what is in the fridge, yep could make something out of that.
Hi Lucas, LOL!!! Oh yes plum dumplings, my grandmother was big on fruit dumplings too!
Trisha
Love traditional, family recipes. There’s so much history and tradition and culture and flavours in there. Plus, you cannot go wrong with bacon!
Lucas @ CoverVersions.TV
They look like little pizza pockets, only actually nice!
And nay, I have not the traditional recipes in my family, but my wife’s grandmothers plum dumplings make an appearance about once a quarter.
Phuoc'n Delicious
Unfortunately we don’t have traditional recipes that have been passed on, our cooking tends to be “cook with a little of this, and a little of that, or whatever you have on hand” It’s one traditional that I would love to pass down onto my children when I have a family, just need to perfect those recipes I remember growing up on.
These look delicious Sara. Great work on recreating these buns without a given recipe
YaYa
I love traditional family recipes, so much love and history and memories bound up in them!
ChopinandMysaucepan
Dear Sara
It’s great that you have your grandma’s recipe documented on your blog. It’s one of the reason I wanted to start a blog to and it’s really fun and also important to record family recipes that one has shared with loved ones.
Sara
Hi John, Hehe sorry mate. It will come to you.
Hi Iron Chef Shellie, everything is better with bacon and I am proud to be of Latvian descent where we dedicated a whole bun to it!
Hi Penny, I hope you give the recipe a go.
Hi Lorraine, I don’t think Latvian cuisine is that mainstream
Hi Gareth, They are the perfect breakfast food. Actually perfect anytime of the day. I have a fave soup by mum too.
Hi Ramen, Hehe, it sure does.
Hi Anna, Thank you. Seeing Josh perfecting it makes me so happy.
Hi SarahKate, Thank you.
Gareth
Portable cooked breaky, I love it! Be great with pancetta.
I like my mums recipe for ham and vege soup, so nice winter fare.
SarahKate (Mi Casa-Su Casa)
How beautiful! I just love family recipes like this. Congrats on 200 posts!
[email protected] The Littlest Anchovy
Congratulations on your 200th post Sara! I am so pleased you were able to re-create this – future generations must have this recipe!
Ramen Raff
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Bacon makes everything better!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Ooh I’ve never heard of these but I know that I’d love them! 😀
penny aka jeroxie
I never had these before. Will love to try.
Iron Chef Shellie
you had me at bacon buns *giggles* 😛
Can’t wait to try and make these
[email protected]
OK, I’ve had these somewhere. I don’t know where or when but I swear I’ve eaten them before, a long time ago. Something tells me the Croatians do something similar. Man this is gonna bug me. Where have I had these!