Stockpile Recipe – Pierogi

‘Tis the season! I actually did have all the ingredients in my house to make pierogi today. Too bad my freezer was so crammed I couldn’t find the farmer’s cheese and I had to head over to the store to get a pound.

Hubby and I took the afternoon to make pierogi. Pierogi is a traditional Polish peasant food that was embraced by the nobles and then, eventually, by the world. Everyone seems to have a favorite dough and filling. My personal favorites are flats… just the dough. We cook the flats in butter and brown sugar and it is like eating candy! My kind of food!

Today we made flats, but the texture was horrible so I will not be posting that recipe. I will make another batch tomorrow and tweak the flour content.

We also made cheese filled and sauerkraut. Those turned out very, very well and are the recipes I will be sharing.

Hubby always has me trying some new way to make the process easier (it isn’t hard to make pierogi, it is just time consuming). This year’s newest was to use a pasta maker to flatten the dough, and that worked really, really well! Hubby rolled it through on a 1, then re-rolled at a 3 and it was thin enough to work with, buuuut he also made me try another tweak: instead of flour, I used softasilk cake flour. This had a positive effect on the filled pierogi as they were definitely lighter with less glutton. The negative is there is little stretch or give. With flour, you can stretch the dough, pinch it to close holes, etc., etc. That is not possible if using the cake flour. The cake flour was also why the texture of the flat pierogi was awful. So, if using a pasta maker and flour, I’d roll it out at a 2 and then re-roll at a 4.

The big difference between this dough recipe and many other pierogi recipes is you can mix the dough by hand, you do not need to use a food processor!

Pierogi
3 c flour
1 egg
1 c sour cream
pinch salt
2 TBSP flour

Mix well. Put on floured board and roll until pliable in the palm of your hand, adding more flour to be able to roll out the rest 9use 1/2 for the dough) after first rolling cut with a glass or cutter, put cheese on top into the round circle. place top, pinch with a fork to seal (no water).
Drop into boiling water ’til dough floats to top.

Fry with brown sugar and butter until brown.

Cheese Filling

1# farmer’s cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup melted butter

Note: I find this much easier to do in a food processor than in a mix-master. The consistency is creamer.

Mix together farmer’s cheese, sugar, corn starch and egg yolks.
Blend well.
Add lemon juice.
Blend well.
Add melted butter
Mix all ingredients until well blended

Refrigerate if not using immediately.

Sauerkraut Filling

1 small can sauerkraut
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 stick butter
pepper

Melt 1 stick of butter in pan on stove
Add onion
Saute until soft
Add sauerkraut, mixing well within the pan
Pepper
Allow to cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

Assembly

Roll out dough until thin, but NOT see through
Use a small glass to cut the dough (like a cutout cookie) – ( if you have a pierogi maker, you can use it)
Take a small amount of cheese filling, place it in the center of the cutout circle.
Take a second cut out circle, and place it on top of the first one with the filling.
Take a folk, and press it along the edges of the top and bottom of the circlets effectively sealing the filling inside.
Repeat process until all dough and/or filling is gone.

When you have 5-7 completed pierogi, place them into the pot of gentle boiling water on the stove.
Allow to cook 5 minutes.
(If the water loses heat quickly, you can cover it to allow the pierogi to cook in a gentle boil)

The pierogi will float to the top after a minute or two. After five minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a rack to dry.
(I use a jellyroll pan with a cooling rack inside. This not only allows the pierogi to dry, it will catch whatever water runs off the boiled dough.)

Repeat until all pierogi are cooked.

Note: Do NOT intermingle the cheese and sauerkraut in the same water. You’ll be unhappy if you do. I usually cook all of one type at one time, then I dump the water, wash out the pots, refill and bring fresh water to a new boil.

At this time you can freeze the pierogi for later use.

The pierogi are technically cooked after they are boiled. I cannot imagine eating them that way. Usually to make certain the pierogi are fully cooked, they are now pan fried. I recommend melted butter and minced onion sauteed in a pan for the sauerkraut. Cook until lightly browned. Use melted butter and brown sugar for the cheese pierogi.

Mmmmmmmm

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Previous Stockpile Recipe Posts:

Stockpile Recipe – Baklava
Stockpile Recipe – Texas Sheet Cake
Overnight French Toast (Guest Post)
Stockpile Recipe – Ground Beef Wellington
Stockpile Recipe – Can’t Leave ‘Em Alone Bars
Stockpile Recipe – Thanksgiving Dinner
Stockpile Recipe – Monday’s Meal
Stockpile Recipe – Harvest Soups
Stockpile Recipe – Baking With Apples
Stockpile Recipe – Crock Pot Pumpkin (or Squash) Pie Pudding
Stockpile Recipe – Pear Cobbler and Pear Pie
Stockpile Recipe – Banana Bread
Stockpile Recipe – Skillet Cookies
Stockpile Recipe – Labor Day Menu
Stockpile Recipe – Chocolate Slush Cake
Stockpile Recipe – Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake
Stockpile Recipe – Clafoutis
Stockpile Recipes – What to do with zucchini?
Stockpile Recipe – Steak, Chicken and Seafood Meals
Stockpile Recipe – Zucchini Cobbler
Stockpile Recipe – Apple Brown Betty
Stockpile Recipe – Cherry Kuchen
Stockpile Recipe – Ice Cream Cake
Stockpile Recipe – Deviled Eggs
Stockpile Recipe – Sour Cream Cheesecake
Stockpile Recipe(s) – Cool Whip
Stockpile Recipe – Easy Chicken
Stockpile Recipe – Quiche
Stockpile Recipe – Spaghetti Sauce
Stockpile Recipe – “Stuff”

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