Swabian onion pie

by | Sep 23, 2022 | Breads, buns & biscuits

I stumbled upon the recipe of Swabian onion pie a few months ago when I was searching for traditional recipes, which would be worth showing you. I have found a treasure if I may say so. This onion pie is a delicious, flavorful pastry that consists of a soft buttery crust and a rich onion-bacon-sour cream filling, and I’m sure I’m going to bake it again. The original recipe is accessible on the website of Hungarian-Germans in Piliscsaba.

Swabian onion pie
Swabian onion pie – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

For the dough:

  • 250 g (~2 cups) flour
  • 150 g (~2/3 cup) cold butter
  • 1 egg
  • 60 g (~2 oz) sour cream
  • 1 tsp salt

For the filling:

  • 60 g (~4 tbsp) butter
  • 600 g (~1 1/3 lbs) onions, chopped (this is net weight after peeling)
  • 100 g (~3 1/2 oz) smoked pork fat or bacon, chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 250 g (~1/2 lb) sour cream
  • 1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds
  • salt and pepper to taste

In a frying pan cook the smoked pork fat pieces or bacon pieces until golden brown and crispy.

Meanwhile in a separate pan heat butter, add chopped onions and slowly sauté while stirring frequently. Once the bacon is done, stir in the onions and cook until they look like this:

Sautéed onions
Sautéed onions – photo: zserbo.com

Set aside and let the sautéed onions cool.

Rub butter into the flour, then add egg, sour cream and salt, and knead the dough until it is smooth. Wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Grease a baking pan and preheat the oven to 220°C / 428°F. (I baked the onion pie in a 30×30 cm / 12×12 inch baking pan, so it was quite thin; feel free to use a smaller pan, in this case the crust will be thicker and the baking time may be a bit longer.)

On a floured surface roll out the dough into a rectangle, transfer into the prepared pan and spread onions on the dough evenly. In a small bowl combine eggs, sour cream, ground caraway seeds, salt and pepper, and cover the onions with this mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Support my work

If you're enjoying my recipe collection, please, consider supporting my work by making a one-time payment.

Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

Pin It on Pinterest