Bacon Buns or Piroshki

Dice bacon and cook in a sauté pan. Pour off all but ½ cup bacon grease. Add diced onion and ground ham and sauté until onion is translucent. Remove from stove and set aside.

Warm milk but do not boil. Place ¼ cup of the warmed milk in a glass and stir in yeast. Set aside until bubbly or foamy.

Place remaining warmed milk in a large bowl with 2 sticks softened butter. Add sugar and salt, then incorporate eggs into mixture. Add yeast mix to bowl and mix again.

Begin to add flour by the cupful, mixing with a wooden spoon. When the dough seems to hold together—between 7 and 8 cups—empty bowl onto on a floured surface and knead. If the dough sticks to your hands, incorporate more flour. Knead until the dough is smooth and soft to the touch, then return it to the bowl, cover with a towel, and set in a warm place to rise until almost doubled in size (approximately 1 to 1½ hours).

Knead again, incorporating more flour as needed. Cover and set aside to rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Pull off a section of risen dough the size of a ping-pong ball and stretch into a flat circle. Place1 heaping teaspoon of bacon filling mixture in its center. (If the filling appears dry, stir in a small amount of bacon grease.) Pinch edges of circle together around the filling. Set the buns, pinched-side down, on the cookie sheet.

Lightly beat egg yolks and water together in a bowl with a fork and brush a small amount of mixture over top of buns.

Bake until golden, approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and set buns to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy bacon buns while they are still warm from the oven. To eat later, cool and refrigerate or freeze and reheat in a 225° oven in a covered roasting pan or in a microwave on a lower power setting.