My mother’s recipe of traditional Ukrainian rogaliki

Several countries claim that rogaliki is part of their culinary heritage, Ukraine being one of them. I want to share with you my mother’s recipe, which she got from her own mother. Rogaliki is a traditional pastry, which we eat not only on special occasions, but also in our normal daily life. They’re easy to make and can be ready in an hour, making them the perfect treat for when guests come over unexpectedly!

Ingredients list:

• 500g margarine (room temperature)
• 500g sour cream
• Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• Apricot or plum marmalade
• Icing sugar

First, combine together the margarine and sour cream in a medium bowl. Add the salt and sugar, mix well and start slowly adding flour. Keep adding flour until a dough is formed. The dough should be soft and a little crumbly. 

Next, divide the dough into small pieces and roll them out with a rolling pin. Then cut the dough to create 12 or more segments of roughly the same size. The dough is not supposed to stick to your hands. If it does, just add some more flour.

Then, add a teaspoon of marmalade to each segment. The thicker the marmalade the better, as you don’t want too much liquid in the rogaliki. It’s harder to work with jam, since it has a tendency to leak out of the pastry. Next, simply create rolls one by one by rolling the thick end of the segment towards the centre.

Finally, put the rogaliki on a baking tray, leaving plenty of space between them. Remember to put baking paper on the tray first.

The next step is to crack the eggs and whisk, then brush the egg mixture on top of the rogaliki. Then, simply bake them for about 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. The pastries should rise in the oven, doubling in size.

As soon as they are ready, lightly sift some icing sugar on top. Then gently remove them from the baking tray and serve.

хороший апетит!

This recipe was created by Olga Rudenko.

Hi! I am Olga. I am a young Ukrainian professional. I grew up in central Ukraine, and now live in Kyiv. I obtained a Master’s in International Law in 2016. I have an interesting mix of different experience: four years assisting international civic and public projects at different NGOs, one year working as a lawyer at a Polish-Ukrainian agency, and traineeships at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Ukraine and a Romanian legal firm. For now, I am working for the EU project Association4U and my field of responsibility is communication with the Ministry of Justice. For several months I also assisted the EU Delegation to Ukraine with their work. I am so inspired to join the Young European Ambassadors’ community!