Moldovan cuisineApplesPastryPiesSweets

Moldovan pies vărzăre (from Sonya Kopylova)

Name: Moldovan pies vărzăre (from Sonya Kopylova)
Cuisine: Moldovan cuisine
Ingredients: Vegetable oil — 1 cup; Water — 1 cup; Salt — 1 pinch; Plain flour — 4 cups; Apples; Sugar; Cinnamon; Lemon juice

AI Photo

Method

Mix 1 cup of vegetable oil, 1 cup of water, and a pinch of salt.

Add four cups of flour and knead the dough. Let it rest for just 10-15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 balls (or pinch off pieces as needed).

Roll each ball into a thin round flatbread so thin you can see the grain of the board underneath. Place the filling in a line and roll it into a log.

You’ll end up with long “sticks.”

Place them in an oven preheated to 220°C for about half an hour, but it’s best to keep an eye on the pies.

The filling can be anything. The classic choice is stewed cabbage with egg. Or potato, or mushrooms, or both together. I also love buckwheat filling (but make sure not to let it dry out).

Use apples, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice for a sweet version—one of my favourites.

StoryMoldovan pies vărzăre (from Sonya Kopylova)My grandparents lived in Tbilisi (my grandfather was a Tbilisi Armenian, and my grandmother, a Jew on her mother’s side, evacuated to Georgia from Kharkiv as a teenager and stayed there). When I was little, in the 1980s, every winter, they would send us a package from sunny Georgia to our home in the Moscow suburbs.