Pierogies
My husband thinks he is very Polish…turns out it’s not very much, but he proudly claims many polish things and the food is one of them. Give him some polka, kielbasa, pierogies, and maybe some Blackberry Brandy, and he’d be a very happy man. My kids have come to love the pierogies….not so much the polka, but he will keep on trying.
We have made this an annual tradition in our house. Everyone helps and everyone enjoys the delicious meal these pierogies make. We make enough to freeze and then are blessed with an easy comforting meal on our more busy nights.
It takes a little effort, but it has become a family tradition, and everyone loves to try different spots in the assembly line. I can’t wait until they get older and hopefully continue this tradition with their kids because man, that is what I am trying to achieve…creating family recipes that they will miss when they go to college and call home to ask how to make them….and eventually make them with their children. I know I did that with my mom and still call home sometimes to ask her what I did wrong in her recipe. Anyway….these are amazing
Pierogi
Prep time: | Cook time:
Serving size: Makes roughly 64 pierogi
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large egg
- 1 cup sour cream
- ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
Filling
- 3 ¾ pounds baking potatoes
- 1 medium white onion finely diced
- ⅓ cup salted butter softened, divided
- 4 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese finely shredded
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp white pepper taste
Instructions
Make the filling:
Peel and quarter the potatoes. Cover with water in a large pot and boil until fork tender.
Heat a frying pan on medium-low. Add 2 tbsp butter, and when it melts, add onion. Cook slowly until caramelized (about 20 minutes). Drain and mash potatoes with butter, salt, white pepper, and shredded cheese. Once mashed, add caramelized onion. Set aside to cool.
Make the dough:
Add all ingredients and knead until smooth and comes together as a dough. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Assemble:
We use the Kitchenaid pasta attachment to make the dough. We run it through one or two times on level 1 and then switch to level 4. If you don’t have the pasta attachment, roll out the dough as thin as possible (about the thickness of lasagna noodles).
Cut the dough out in circles (about a 4-inch diameter). Place a tsp of filling in the center of the dough circle. Wet the outside edges of your circle (we dip our finger in water and then swipe on the outside edges) and then fold over the dough to a half circle, pushing down slightly—we like to crimp with a fork on the edges.
Set aside on a parchment-lined cookie sheet until you have completed all the pierogies.
Boil your water in a large pot. When it comes to a boil, drop your pierogi in the water (leaving space so they don’t stick together) and then let them boil for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, take them out of the water, slather them with butter, salt, and pepper, and ENJOY!
Notes
This recipe makes a lot of pierogi. We like to eat what we want the first night and then freeze the rest. We boil all of the pierogi, let them dry on cookie sheets, and then place them in the freezer on parchment-lined cookie sheets. (Make sure to give them space on the cookie sheet so they don’t freeze together.) Then, we take them off the cookie and place them in freezer-safe bags. When we want to eat them, boil water and place your frozen pierogies in the water and boil for a few minutes until they float. They still taste amazing frozen and make for a really fast dinner!
