Piroshky Piroshky ★ 4.5
Piroshky Piroshky in Seattle's Pike Place is the 1992 Russian bakery: salmon and cream cheese, cabbage and beef, hand-folded buns under $8 sold from the alleyway window.
Try: Salmon piroshky or cabbage and onion
History
Vlad Tikhomirov opened Piroshky Piroshky in 1992 in a former bakery space at 1908 Pike Place. He and Olga Sagan, who took over the business in 2004, built the menu on Russian and Eastern European baked stuffed buns: cabbage with onion, beef and cheese, apple cinnamon roll, and the savoury salmon pate with cream cheese and dill that became the Pike Place signature. The bakery still hand-folds every piroshky on premises and the line down the alleyway is part of the building. Sagan kept the business open through the 2020 lockdown by selling frozen shipping packs of piroshky across the United States. The salmon piroshky is the bun every Pike Place itinerary should hit before the chowder.
Common allergens: Fish, Dairy, Gluten, Egg
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 500g strong bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 7g instant yeast
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 30g caster sugar
- 240ml whole milk, warm
- 1 large egg
- 40g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g hot-smoked salmon, flaked
- 200g full-fat cream cheese
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- Black pepper
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for wash
Method
- Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add milk, egg and butter. Knead 8 minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Prove covered in a warm spot for 60 minutes until doubled.
- Mix salmon, cream cheese, dill, lemon zest and pepper into a coarse paste. Chill while the dough finishes proving.
- Knock back the dough and divide into 8 even pieces. Roll each into a 12cm round on a floured surface.
- Spoon 2 tablespoons of filling onto each round. Pinch the edges over the filling and seal into an oval bun. Place seam-down on a lined tray.
- Cover and rest 20 minutes. Heat oven to 200 C. Brush each piroshky with egg wash.
- Bake 18 to 22 minutes, until deeply golden. Rest 5 minutes before eating.
Tip from the editors. Hot-smoked salmon, not cold-smoked: the texture must be flaky and crumbly so the filling stays inside the bun in the oven.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Where to eat salmon piroshky
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