The filling is best made the night before.
Wash hands. Set the oven at 390°F
1. Cut medium-sized squash in half. (Pumpkin can be used too, but it is runnier and therefore more difficult to make the first time.)
Scoop seeds out. Cover squash with tinfoil and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or until done. ( the baking time depends on the size of the squash). When baking is done, remove squash from oven and let cool.
2. Scoop the squash out of the rind and add 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons honey.
3. Mash the squash until it's fine and put it in the fridge overnight. (or at least for several hours.)
To make the pyrahi.
1. Wash hands. Set the oven for 400.
2. Mix in a bowl 2 eggs and 1 1/4 cups (310 ml.) sour cream.
3. In another bowl mix:
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4. Grate 1/2 cup cold butter using a grater.
5. Mix the butter into the flour. Rub the butter and flour mixture between your hands until the butter is totally mixed in and it's a fine, crumble mixture.
6. Add the sour cream and egg to the flour and mix into a ball.
7. Spread 1/4 cup of flour on the counter and put the ball of dough on this. Roll and knead the ball around in the flour until all the flour has been absorbed and the ball holds together.
8 Divide the dough in half. Roll one half of the dough into a log about 12 inches (30 cm.) long.
9 Cut the log in half (6 inches/15 cm.) and then cut each half in half again. Cut each piece in three so you end up with twelve equal pieces. Do the same with the other half of the dough. You will end up with twenty-four pieces altogether.
10. Roll each piece into a little ball and roll it in some flour. With a rolling pin flatten each ball into a round pancake.
11. Put a spoonful of squash mixture on the first pancake. Dip your fingers in flour (so they are not sticky) and take the top end of the pancake between your two thumbs and index fingers. Pull the top of the pancake over the squash and pinch down firmly into a pleat.
12. Take the next top section of the pancake and pinch it together. Slowly close the pancake around the filling in about six or seven pleats. Make sure you do not pinch so hard that the squash moves off the pancake, but hard enough that the pancake stays closed around the filling, with a bit of the squash peeping out. For the last pinch close the pancake around the last of the squash. You will end up with a dough pocket (pyrahi) enclosing the filling.
13. Repeat numbers 11 and 12 for all twenty-four pyrahi.
14. Put the pyrahi on cookie sheets and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes or until lightly browned.
15. Eat with melted butter and a dollop of sour cream or yoghurt.
From the book KIDS WHO GROW THEIR OWN FOOD, facts, notes and helpful hints. http://www.annalma.ca/books/KWGOF.html
