Беляши - Belyashi

Have you ever eaten something when you were just a child and all you can remember is how good it was? You may not even remember how it tasted exactly but you just have a memory of it being so delicious. Well my mom use to make these delicious deep fried pastries with a beef filling called Беляши/ Belyashi. 


They are made with a soft yeast dough and have a meat, and onion filling in the center, deep fried till golden brown perfection. All I had was childhood memories of eating them. I would hint, to my mother, at times that it sure would nice to have them again and then.....my wonderful mother surprised me this year for my birthday and made them! Yay!! Not only did I get them for my birthday but now that I'm older I decided that I would learn how to make them and take pictures so that I can make them anytime. Even better than that I thought I'd share this recipe with you. Maybe you've had these before and know first hand how good they are or maybe you haven't tried them before. Either way try this recipe out today, hot or cold these Russian meat pastries are so delicious, you won't regret it.

~ Беляши - Belyashi ~

  Ingredients for yeast dough:

1/2 cup warm water

1 tbsp active dry yeast

Pour the warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle the dry yeast onto the water and set aside to develop. Yeast will dissolve, foam and become bubbly when ready. 

While yeast is developing..... 

2 cups milk or water 

1 tbsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

Combine milk or water, salt and olive oil in a large bowl. Add developed yeast mixture and stir to combine. Stir in 1 cup flour. Continue adding 2-4 cups of flour to make a soft dough. If your not afraid to get messy use hands to add flour, it's easier and you can gauge the softness of the dough more easily. 

Once you've added enough flour to make a soft dough, lightly sprinkle work surface with flour. Knead dough for 5 minutes. Place the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise till double in size. While dough is rising prepare meat filling.

Ingredients for meat filling:

1 kg of lean ground beef 

3 large onions

1 tbsp salt or to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

1/2 warm water

Peel and finely chop onions. Place into large bowl. Add ground beef, salt, pepper and water.. Combine mixture thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside while you prepare to roll out dough.

Once the dough is doubled in size, cut dough into 4. Rolled out each individual piece with a rolling pin to 1/4  inch thickness . Cut  3-4 inch circle out of rolled out dough, using a round cookie cutter. You can also cut off individual size piece from large dough ball and roll out each piece, making pastries one by one. But I prefer this method It's a lot easier to rolled out one big piece of dough and cut into circle with a cookie cutter (like you would when making rolled out cookies). Less time consuming and less hassle = 👍

Place approximately 1 heaping tbsp. of meat filling in the center on each circle and gently spread out filling. Stopping 1 inch from outer edge. You need to leave enough room to be able to pinch edged and fold dough in and slightly over the meat filling.

Crimp edges and fold in over the meat filling. Do this all the way around the whole circle, approximately 7-8 crimp and folds. Gently press down to help seal in meat filling. See video below for help. 

Place Belyashi on floured surface or plastic up-cycled cereal bags, while waiting for the deep frying oil to come to temperate.

*Check my up-cycled cereal bags tip here I use them to roll out cookie dough too, they come in handy for a lot of thing start saving them today!*

  Pour 2-3 cups vegetable oil into a deep frying pan and heat oil on medium to 175-190 degree Celsius. Place Beylashi face down in hot oil gently. 

*Be careful not to splash hot oil on yourself*

 Fry face down till edges are golden brown, then turn over with metal tongs. 

After you turn the Belyashi, fry the bottoms till golden brown too. Remove from oil with metal tongs. Place on paper towel face down at first to drain oil, then flip them over. 

And just like that the Belyashi are ready to eat :)

 As you can see they're not difficult to make. They don't require a lot of fancy ingredients but they are so delicious, if I could add taste and smell to my video I would so that you could enjoy it. Once you've tried them, you'll be thinking and longing for these delicious savory pastries until the next time you make them.

Enjoy your Belyashi........

Приятного аппетита!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

God Bless You,

Katya