Grandma's Recipe - Plyushki

While staying with my family, I learned a couple of family recipes from both of my grandmas and my grandpa. This one is for sweet pastry called "plyushka". It is even more special because my grandma Maria doesn't really cook. She gets away with it, because my grandpa Oleg does it for her in a perfect way. But this particular recipe was taught me by her, and even on photos, it is her hands that are making them.
My bff Natasha and I came to visit them one day. We go way back with her and she use to visit my grandparents with me all the time. Just as we came, grandma Maria was getting ready to roll the plyushkas. so I tied my hair and covered it, just as I use to do, when they would let me help in the kitchen when I was little, and we began helping and learning. 

I tried my best to snap a couple of photos, to show the process.
So here it goes. For this pastry you will need regular yeast doe. I am not going to describe how to make it, as most of us have their favorite way. Honestly, I use breadmaker to make my doe, and my friend Natasha and I arrived too late to see the process of my grandparents making it.

Plyushka

You will need:
- your favorite kind of yeast doe
- sugar
- unsalted butter (melted)
- berries (if you want)

How to make it:
First you separate your doe into equal balls and let it rise a little. Then you roll, or flatten each piece with your fingers, not too thin, just enough to spread the butter, which takes us to our next step... we spread melted butter...

...then sprinkle generously with sugar...

... then roll it and fold the rolled piece in half, so that the end of the rolled part is in the middle of the fold...

... then we flip it and make a little incision...

... then unfold...

... Then you bake them under 375'F until they are nice and golden and indulge with hot freshly brewed tea.

My grandma said that you could also add berries inside with sugar and butter if you wanted to. Today I made these just like grandma taught me and they came out delicious!!!

I craved strawberries so instead of putting them inside, I mixed them with cream cheese and guava syrup in the blender and made home made strawberry cream cheese. I served it on top of plyushkas and it turned out heavenly!

The fact that you can mix these with anything you like, serve them hot or cold is pretty amazing, but they are even more precious to me because my grandma passed this recipe to me from her mom, and now I am making them and will teach my daughter some day - so this is a real family recipe!