This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Gluten free bierocks, the traditional Russian meat-filled bread, are made gluten free with your favorite fillings.
Table of Contents
I have a very strict policy about dinner in my house: don't ask what it is. Really, the policy has everything to do with not allowing the children to know “what's for dinner??” before it's served because I really don't want to hear any whining and I really do mean any whining. So if you are ridiculous enough to ask what is planned for the last meal of the day, every.single.day, you'll likely be answered with one word: “dinner.” But when it comes to something like these German meat-filled turnovers, I find myself hiding behind the don't-ask policy … since I don't really know how to pronounce what it is. And frankly there's just no agreement on the subject on the Internet. I do know that these gluten free bierocks are another in a growing list of handheld dinners that I find myself relying upon more and more as fall sports are in full swing and a weeknight dinner on the run is sometimes all we can manage. And they manage to be full of savory flavors without relying one bit upon any sort of shredded cheese. Imagine that!
You absolutely can make these with gluten free biscuit dough, but I prefer our recipe for Gluten Free Texas Roadhouse-Style roll dough. As much as I love gluten free biscuit dough and feel that, whatever the question, biscuit dough is the answer as a general rule, I think that bread dough just pairs best with these hearty beef-and-cabbage bierock fillings.
As with all filled breads and pastries, resist the urge to overfill them before baking. And when you roll each piece of dough into a round, roll it a bit thinner on the edges and a bit thicker toward the center. The edges will overlap during shaping and produce a thicker dough, but the center of the dough alone with serve as the top of the bierock.
If you have previous bierock experience (which I, for one, did not), you may have other ideas for how to season the fillings. By all means, tailor them to your tastes. And share your favorite fillings with us in the comments! Just don't ask me what's for dinner.
Gluten Free Bierocks
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Gluten Free Texas Roadhouse-Style Roll Dough
- ½ pound 85% lean ground beef
- 1 small onion, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 ounces diced pancetta or cubed bacon
- 5 ounces cabbage, shredded
- 1 ½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Prepare the bread dough through the first rise. (See Recipe Notes)
Prepare the fillings.
- In a large, heavy-bottom saucepan, sauté the ground beef and onions over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the beef is browned and the onions are translucent (about 6 minutes). Add the minced garlic and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is fragrant (about 3 minutes).
- Transfer the cooked ground beef, onions and garlic to a small bowl and set aside, draining any excess fat from the beef. Place the pancetta (or bacon) in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the pancetta is browned (about 3 minutes). Add the cabbage, Worcestershire sauce, then cover and cook until the cabbage is wilted (about 3 minutes).
- Add the caraway seeds and mix to combine, then transfer the cabbage and pancetta mixture to a separate bowl, draining any liquid. Set aside.
Prepare the dough and the bierocks.
- Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside. On a lightly floured surface, divide the bread dough in half, then divide each piece in half again until you have 8 equally-sized pieces of dough. Work with one piece of dough at a time, covering the other pieces of dough with a moist tea towel to prevent them from drying out.
- Sprinkle each piece of dough lightly with flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking to the surface, and roll it into a round about 6 inches in diameter, rolling the edges of each round a bit thinner and keeping the center of the round a bit thicker. Top with about one-eighth of the cabbage and pancetta filling, and one-eighth of the beef filling, placing the fillings in the center of the dough.
- Pull the edges of the dough toward the center, overlapping the dough. Pinch to seal, then invert each bierock onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart from one another.
- Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough and filling. Dust the tops of the bierocks lightly with more flour and cover the baking sheet with lightly oiled plastic wrap.
- Place in a warm, draft-free location to rise for about 45 minutes, or until the bierocks have swelled to about 150% of their original size (you will not see a full doubling because of the fillings).
- Turn on your oven to preheat to 350°F.
Bake.
- Remove the plastic wrap and brush the tops of the risen bierocks generously with the melted butter. Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the bierocks are golden brown all over (about 15 minutes). Remove from the oven and serve hot or allow to cool completely, wrap tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet before transferring to a freezer-safe zip-top bag. Unwrap, allow to come to room temperature and reheat in a toaster oven at 250°F until warm.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hah! We have the same policy, except that I usually make up something bogus like “pigs feet” or something equally unappetizing. Ot the old standby “food” and then send them to set the table. They LOVE that. :)
Good idea about not telling what’s for dinner:) I’m going to try this one tomorrow. We took your handheld chicken pies and the handheld apple pies with us camping and they LOVED them!
Nicole, you have NO idea how much I appreciate you and your cook books! I bought all three of them and am just getting ready to order some supplies. What a lifesaver you are! The bierocks recipe sounds amazing and I won’t tell my hubby what it is!!!
Love your don’t ask rule. I will suggest it to my children for the picky grandchildren. I can’t imagine any picky kid refusing hot bread for dinner. Yum. Can’t wait to try this.
Wow, what a coincidence. We ate at the Nebraska answer to a bierocks
restaurant, Runza, last night but, of course, I did not have any because
of the dough. I was telling my husband how much I missed them and here you are today with the very recipe I need! Thank you so much!
So funny that I ran across this recipe on pinterest. Russian Pies…Bierock as my Russian grandfather called them…I used your pizza dough a few weeks ago to make these and they turned out really well. I will have to try your new version. So nice to run across a recipe that I never knew spanned popularity enough to be posted on a gluten free blog…now, can you make a recipe conversion for fried egg noodles with sour cream ;)
Would love to see a recipe for egg noodles !!!!
Nicole,
I can’t believe what I’m seeing! I have been trying for years to explain this meal to my now grown-up girls! I never made it for them because their dad is not a cabbage lover, but this meal is something my mother often made when I was growing up! Now, I am gluten-sensitive and wouldn’t even consider it. I was reminiscing about it the other day with one of my daughters, but had some difficulty explaining the entire concept. There was a whole flood of memories brought back to me with your wonderful pictures today! Thank you!