dough:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cold water
1 egg
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
filling:
1 lb russet potatoes, baked, cooled, insides scooped out*
1/2 onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon milk
1 egg
Directions:
First, saute the onions in the oil until translucent. Mash the potatoes, milk onions and egg together. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dough ingredients until a round ball forms.
If it is overly sticky, add a little bit for flour, if crumbly, add a tiny bit more water. Roll out on a clean, floured surface. Roll about to about 1/8 thick.
Use a large round biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out circles.
Place 1 1/2 teaspoon of filling on one side of the round of dough leaving a 1/4 inch rim around the bottom. Fold the other side and pinch tightly shut.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the pierogi and boil until they float to the surface. Remove and serve or saute briefly in some butter, just to brown them, before serving. Serve hot. Yummy with sour cream and sauteed onions.
Yield: 10-12 pierogi
My thoughts:
Today I had one of those “why haven’t I done this before” moments. Pierogi** is something I actually I grew up eating (albeit not homemade) unlike 90% of what I post here but for some reason it always seemed like too big of a deal to make on my own, from scratch. Then today it hit me what a silly excuse that was. We’ve made har gow*** which was very time consuming to make and required a special trip to the market for tapioca flour and wheat starch to make the wrappers. The humble pierogi uses only the most basic of ingredients and is much simpler to make once you get past the fact that you have to vigorously boil something that you pinched together yourself. It only took about 10-15 minutes to make the filling and the dough, roll it out and fill it. Having a stand mixer helped, but even if you couldn’t mix and saute at once, it still only take about 20 minutes prep. Every culture seems to have a dumpling and pierogi (singular: pierog) is one of simplest, but also one of the most satisfying to eat-they are so filling, just a few pierogi can make a meal.
*I used baked potatoes because it eliminated a significant hands on time in making the filling. I didn’t have to peel or chop the potatoes, wait for water to boil etc but you could just use plain mashed potatoes.
**Alternatively: perogi, perogy, pirohi, piroghi, pirogi, pirogen, piroshke or pyrohy.
***Shrimp dumplings with thin, translucent wrappers.
I think you just made me one of the happiest people in the world…I love Pierogis and look forward to giving these a try!
I made these once and it was very labour intensive, but maybe it was the recipe I followed. I love potato and cheese ones. Do you have to bake the potatoes? Yummm…if only I wasn’t dairy free right now.
Excellent, thanks — I hadn’t thought of making my own, but you make it look pretty simple. And not a huge jump to maybe trying mushroom and onion pierogis as well. Don’t forget applesauce too!
I read your post a bit fast and thought for a second you said you’d made hair grow — and I was wondering why you weren’t a millionaire already. There are an awful lotta balding guys out there who wouldn’t mind the recipe for that…
Love the recipe and pictures! Thank you so much! A couple of days I thought of making home-made pierogis too, thanks for the encouragement, no I surely will!
Ola.
i love pierogis and also grew up eating them. i’ve usually resorted to frozen ones for my fix, but this recipe is inspiring. i’ll have to make them homemade.
made these before and I had a similar why-haven’t-I-made-these before moment. I actually used my pasta maker to keep the dough thin and it worked like a charm!
yum, i love pierogies!
Melissa:
I cut down on the labor/time by baking the potatoes (no hands on time/didn’t have to peel, wait for water to boil etc) but you could used regular mashed potatoes. Also: I made a pretty small batch, so it was pretty quick.
Quite an effort! They look delicious.
Mmmm, love these. I make them worse for me by pouring over them clarified butter.
Great idea. They look extremely satisfying.
I made these for lunch today with some handy leftover baked potatoes. They were great and really not that labor intensive. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, I grew up eating pierogi in PA, before my dad died he wanted to open a restaurant called “Pizza, Pastis and Pierogi” Since I am now a southern girl, I’ve had to rely on the frozen ones too (Do you remember Pastis (meat pies) i tried a couple of times but they always came out dry. Gotta try Lisa mushroom & onion pierogi.
My first time posting, love your site and blogs.
Arlene
Pierogis are a huge part of my family’s culinary traditions. At Christmastime my Babci and mom would sit down and make dozens and dozens of them for Wiglia (traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner). My favorite filling is kapusta (like a less pungent sauerkraut. I think it’s so strange seeing people top them with sour cream. We’ve always topped them with butter and breadcrumbs! Prune and blueberry were always big hits in our family, too.
What’s up with one lonely dumpling on the plate? You know you HAVE to eat at least three, right? 🙂
Ah, can’t wait to try this! Growing up in Canada I ate loads of pierogies, but since I moved to the UK they’ve been hard to find. Do they freeze well pre-cooked?
Erinm: I haven’t frozen them before, but I think they would probably freeze better fully cooked (boiled) than raw. If you do freeze them, let me know how it works out.
I ate these frequently growing up too, but I've never had them homemade. Thanks for sharing the recipe! They look divine.
The pierogis look so good! My grandmother made these years ago and on a special trip to Ukraine – my grandfather's brother's wife made me some and they were delish! I have to make them and surprise my grandfather this weekend!