Easter is a time for joy, celebration, family gatherings and of course, pierogis!
If you live in Buffalo, you absolutely know what a pierogi is. If you’re not a Buffalonian (or Polish) let me introduce you. It’s a polish staple…no, a polish delicacy. They are half-moon shaped dough dumplings stuffed to the brim with (usually) potato or cheese. Or in this case, both potato AND cheese! Does it get any better? Nope. And guess what? In this blog post I’m going to show you how to make them! This recipe is delicious and yummy for the whole family!
Ingredients
My family went all out to make around 100 perogies. You can do your math accordingly to split the recipe if you don’t want or need to make 100 of them. Shoutout to my friend Laura who was my original dough recipe dealer from her Polish family. The filling is a recipe from yours truly!
Dough Ingredients
– 12 eggs
– 12 cups of flour
– 3 tsp salt
– 3 cups water
– 6 tsp melted, unsalted butter
Filling Ingredients
– 3 russet potatoes
– 1 1/2 cups milk (start with half cup and add to consistency of mashed potatoes up to 1 1/2 cups if needed)
– 2 blocks of melted cream cheese
– 2 small yellow onions, chopped
– 3 tbsp unsalted butter
– salt and pepper to taste
Frying and Garnish Ingredients
– 2 small yellow onions, chopped, caramelized
– 1 block unsalted butter, divided
– green onion for garnish
– sour cream/plain Greek yogurt for garnish
Instructions
Dough Instructions
Combine the dough ingredients in your mixer. Beat until combined. It’ll be really sticky so get prepared to be messy! (I would suggest splitting this into two when mixing so that your mixer can handle it. Half batch = 6 eggs, 6 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups water, 3 tsp melted butter. I did this twice.)
Put the dough on a large floured cutting board or a clean counter. Its important to flour the surface because the dough is very sticky! Begin to knead the dough and add splashes of flour as needed. Form the dough into a ball. Pat the dough to flatten the top of it. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.
Use a knife or a dough cutter to divide the dough into four. Use a rolling pin to roll out the first section of dough out into about 1/8 inch thick.
Using a wide cup or a circle biscuit cutter, cut the dough into circles to prepare to be filled. I like to cut 8-10 at a time. Again, be sure to flour your surface so it does not stick.
Filling Instructions
Boil a large pot of water and drop in the three potatoes. Continue them on a low boil until soft (This should take about 30-40 mins).
While the potatoes are cooking, melt the three tbsp unsalted butter in a frying pan and add in the chopped onions. Cook and stir until caramelized.
Once the potatoes are cooked through, remove them from the pot and peel the skin off. In a mixing bowl, mash them up and slowly add milk to create the consistency of mash potatoes.
Unwrap the blocks of cream cheese and soften them in a bowl in the microwave.
Combine the potato mixture, cream cheese, caramelized onions and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until evenly combined.
Assembly Instructions
Using the circle cut out, use a teaspoon to scoop the filling onto the center of the circle. Fold over the dough to make a semi circle. Using the end of a fork, press the edges together to seal the pierogi. Be sure that it is completely closed and no filling is spilling out. Sidenote: I tried using a dumpling crimper and I like the fork method better if I’m being honest. 🙂
Boil a pot of water and drop the pierogis in. Carefully stir so they do not stick to the bottom. When they are done cooking, they will float to the top. Remove from pot and place on drying rack to dry.
Frying Instructions
Melt butter a tbsp at a time in a frying pan. Fry pierogi on each side for a couple minutes.
They are delicious served with carmelized onions, green onions and sour cream/plain greek yogurt.
You did it! Enjoy your labor of love!
Bonus 2020 storytime since you made it this far
I started making pierogis during the pandemic, because quite frankly, what else did I have to do? I had (very excitedly) ordered a pasta roller attachment for my Kitchen Aid. In making the pierogi dough, it ended up getting stuck in the roller. In the heat of the moment instead of adding more flour (duh!), I inserted a butter knife to try to scrape it out and it got very, very stuck. Not one of my finest moments, but a lot of weird things happened in 2020, so cut me some slack mkay? Anyway, Easter pierogi making was ultimately one of my silver linings from the pandemic. It has become a family tradition and they are delicious.
