Growing up in Chicago, it wasn’t hard to find good pierogies. The pierogies I ate were mostly from local polish delis or international grocery stores. Our usual was the standard filling, cheese and potatoes. But I also have great memories of eating plum pierogies for dessert: browned and crisped in butter, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. So good!
My grandmother was adopted as a child and never shared history about her biological parents. Recently a few members of my family deduced, through a popular genetic ancestry test, that my grandmother was most likely Polish! We all have a large chunk of polish ancestry that we didn’t know was there. So, I’m embracing that and our newly adopted home of Chicago and we are making pierogies for Craft & Process!
Many food cultures that have a dumpling-type food: middle eastern stuffed bread, Indian samosas, Italian ravioli pasta, Chinese dumplings. Polish pierogies definitely fall into this food category that spans cuisines, with tons of wonderful variation.
Filled with the classic potato and cheese, these pierogies are simple and went well with the polish sausage and cabbage we served. Feel free to experiment with fillings, as long as they are fully cooked before forming.
You could definitely easily add vegetables or meat to the potato and cheese mix. Otherwise, a winter squash or sweet potato would work well in place of the russet potatoes, although you may need to sauté the squash/sweet potatoes in a pan to remove some of the water before forming into balls. I am aching to recreate a sweet plum pierogi soon, and when we do, I will be be sure to post it as an adaptation on C&P!
Jon is the dough expert, and he was skeptical at first about the pierogi dough consistency. It seemed way to sticky and glutinous to be right, but we kept going and it turned out exactly like the familiar, chewy, thick, pasta-like dough I remember.
Pierogies freeze extremely well. After they are formed, freeze the pierogies on a parchment lined baking sheet for 30 minutes. Then transfer the pierogies to an airtight freezer bag or container. When you are ready to cook the pierogies, throw them in the boiling water straight from the freezer.
Serve pierogies as an appetizer with strained yogurt and caramelized onions, or as side with sauerkraut and sausage.
- 430 g all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading
- 1 cup water
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 680 g russet potatoes 1-2 potatoes
- 170 g coarsely grated cheddar cheese
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp butter
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Combine flour, water, egg, oil, and salt in the bowl of a " target="_blank">stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Add additional flour if needed to form a cohesive, but still slightly sticky dough.
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Knead in the mixer with the dough hook on medium speed for 10 minutes until the dough can stretch without breaking.
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Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 1 hour.
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While dough is resting, peel and chop the potatoes into ½ inch chunks. Boil in salted water until tender when pierced with a fork, about 8 minutes.
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Drain the potatoes and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Add the cheese while the potatoes are still hot and mash with a potato masher until combined and there are no large potato chunks. Slightly chunky is okay, but chunks larger than ¼ inch may make it harder to form the pierogies.
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When cool enough to handle, form the potato/cheese mixture into 60 1-1¼ inch balls. Set aside until dough is ready.
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Prepare a floured surface for rolling out dough.
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Halve the dough and roll out to ⅛” thick.
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Using a 3” diameter round cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough. Gather the scraps and reroll to cut more circles. Keep flouring the surface as needed. If the dough shrinks back a lot, let it rest for 5 minutes, then continue rolling. Do the same for the other half of the dough. You should get about 60 circles total. It helps to have a friend for this step!
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To shape the pierogies, hold a circle of dough in your palm and place the ball of potato/cheese filling in the center. Dip a finger on your other hand into a small bowl of water, and wet the dough around the bottom half of the rim. Cup your hand gently to start to fold the pierogie closed, pinching the dough together from one corner to the other. Be sure to avoid trapping any air inside the pierogie. You want at least ¼ inch of pinched edge around the pocket. Crimp the edge with a fork if desired.
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At this point you can freeze the pierogies on a parchment lined baking sheet for 30 minutes, and then transfer into an airtight container or bag for freezer storage. Pierogies will keep in the fridge for several months.
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If you are cooking all the pierogies right away, boil the pierogies is salted water for 4-5 minutes, or until the pierogies float to the surface.
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Heat a tablespoon of butter in a fry pan until hot, brown the pierogies in batches until nicely browned on both sides. Serve with strained yogurt as an appetizer, or as a side with sausage and cabbage.