🥔 SIDE
Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls)
Soft, pillowy yeasted rolls baked close together in one pan, then brushed while hot with raw garlic pounded with salt, sunflower oil and dill, the classic partner to borscht.
Ukrainian · medium · serves 12
prep 25 min · cook 30 min · plus 1 h 30 min hands-off time
~223 cal · 5g protein · 31g carbs · 8g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pampushky are small, soft bread rolls, and in Ukraine a bowl of red borscht is hardly complete without a plate of them. They are baked close together so they rise into each other and pull apart with soft sides, and the moment they come out of the oven they are brushed with a sharp dressing of raw garlic pounded with salt, sunflower oil and a little water, with plenty of chopped dill.
The pungent garlic and the fragrant, unrefined sunflower oil are what make them Ukrainian, and the pairing works because the sharpness cuts through the sweet, earthy beets of the borscht.
The dough is simple: flour, yeast, a little sugar and salt, oil and warm milk or water. Eat them warm, dunked in the soup.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
- 450 g plain flour, plus a little for shaping
- 7 g (1 sachet) instant dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 250 ml warm milk
- 3 tbsp sunflower oil (for the dough), plus a little for the pan
- 1 egg, beaten, for glazing, optional
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp coarse salt (for the garlic)
- 3 tbsp unrefined sunflower oil (for the garlic dressing)
- 2 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
Instructions
- 1Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm milk and the 3 tbsp oil and work into a dough, then knead for about 10 minutes until smooth, soft and elastic.
- 2Cover the bowl and leave the dough in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
- 3Oil a 24 cm round tin. Knock the dough back, divide it into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a smooth ball. Set them in the tin almost touching, cover and leave for 30 minutes, until puffy.
- 4Heat the oven to 190C (375F). Brush the rolls with beaten egg and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding underneath.
- 5While they bake, pound the garlic with the coarse salt to a paste in a mortar, then stir in the unrefined sunflower oil, the water and the dill.✎ Chef’s notePounding with salt turns the garlic into a smooth cream that clings to the rolls; minced garlic slides off.
- 6As soon as the rolls come out of the oven, brush the garlic dressing generously all over them. Let them cool for 10 minutes and serve warm with borscht.
Ukrainian home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Poltava. This is chernozem country, the deep black soil belt, and the cooking follows what grows easily there. Varenyky are filled with cherries in summer and potato or curd cheese the rest of the year, salo is salted and kept for months, and garlic, dill and soured cream turn up so consistently that their absence would be noticed.
🗺️
Ukraine. Ukraine is Europe's breadbasket, and its table centers on beetroot borscht, varenyky dumplings, and dark sourdough breads. Salo (cured pork fat), garlic, dill, and fermented vegetables anchor a resilient, deeply seasonal home-cooking tradition.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ukraine
Varenyky (Potato Dumplings)Half-moon dumplings of tender dough filled with mashed potato and fried onion, boiled and tossed in butter, served with fried onions and sour cream.
BorschtThe famous beet soup, sweet-sour and garnet-red, ladled over beans and finished with dill and sour cream.
Chicken KyivA breaded chicken cutlet rolled around herb-garlic butter that bursts out golden when you cut in.
Browse all Ukraine recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mortar and pestle, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
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Kyiv CakeDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls)?
Soft, pillowy yeasted rolls baked close together in one pan, then brushed while hot with raw garlic pounded with salt, sunflower oil and dill, the classic partner to borscht.
Where does Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) come from?
Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) is a Ukrainian dish from Poltava, Ukraine.
Can Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread Rolls) take to make?
About 2 h 25 min in all: 25 minutes prep and 30 minutes cooking, plus 1 h 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 12.
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