Homemade Potato and Cheese Pierogies / Old Fashioned Perogies

Submitted by Mimi Bobeck

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• Potato and Cheese Filling

• 1 tablespoon grated onion
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups cold mashed potatoes
• 1 cup cottage cheese (or more)
• salt and pepper

• Perogie

• 2 1⁄2 cups flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons oil
• 3⁄4 cup warm water

directions

1. Potato and Cheese Filling: Cook the onion in butter until tender.
2. Combine it with potatoes and cheese.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Vary the proportions and ingredients in this recipe to suit your taste.
5. Mix the flour with the salt in a deep bowl.
6. Add the egg, oil and water to make a medium soft dough.
7. Knead on a floured board until the dough is smooth.
8. Caution: Too much kneading will toughen the dough.
9. Divide the dough into 2 parts.
10. Cover and let stand for at least 10 minutes.
11. Prepare the filling.
12. The filling should be thick enough to hold its shape.
13. Roll the dough quite thin on a floured board.
14. Cut rounds with a large biscuit cutter, or as most old-world grandmothers did, with the open end of a glass.
15. Put the round in the palm of your hand.
16. Place a spoonful of filling in it, fold over to form a half circle and press the edges together with the fingers.
17. The edges should be free of filling.
18. Be sure the edges are sealed well to prevent the filling from running out.
19. Place the pierogi on a floured board or tea towel and then cover with another tea towel to prevent them from drying out.
20. COOKING: Drop a few pierogies into a large quantity of rapidly boiling salted water.
21. Do not attempt to cook too many at a time.
22. Stir VERY gently with a wooden spoon to separate them and to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
23. Continue boiling for 3-4 minutes.
24. The cooling period will depend upon the size you made it, the thickness of the dough and the filling.
25. Pierogies will be ready when they are puffed.
26. Remove them with a perforated spoon or skimmer to a colander and drain thoroughly.
27. Place in a deep dish, sprinkle generously with melted butter to prevent them from sticking.
28. Cover and keep them hot until all are cooked.
29. Serve in a large dish without piling or crowding them.
30. Top with melted butter- chopped crisp bacon and/or chopped onions lightly browned in butter.
31. REHEATING: One of the great things about perogies, is that they can be made in large quantities, refrigerated, frozen and reheated without loss of quality.
32. Many prefer reheated perogies as compared to freshly boiled ones.
33. To re-heat, you can: 1) pan fry pierogies in butter or bacon fat until they are light in color or, 2) heat the pierogies in the top of a double boiler or in the oven until they are hot and plump or, 3) deep fry them.

Reviews

[Carol Meenan]

Thank you so much for this recipe it is exactly like my Grandmothers "Baba" I opened a restaurant March of 2010 now the perogies are on going the menu as of next week. My grandmother has passed on years ago, the recipe was lost. I remembered the ingredients but not the amounts as I was doing a trial run of the Pierogies I was in tears because my grandmother was sitting on my sholders telling me what to do. In honnor of my Grandmother the restaurant is called Baba"s Kitchen. Stop on by !!!!!!!! Asheville North Carolina. Thank you so much for bringing back the fond memories of my Grandmother. Regards and Hugs Carol Meenan

 

[George P]

This is a great recipe, like my great grandmother used to make. I would like to add that after boiling and dried they need to be fried in pork fat renderd from cut up fat back (not salt pork). after cooking the pieces of fat back skim the pieces out with slotted spoon, then in hot oil cook lots of garlic skim that out then fry a chopped onion in the same oil. now you are ready to fry the pierogies. the garlic and onion give the oil a flavor that it incorperated through the perogies. probably not the healthiest way but the way my great grandmother used to make, enjoy!

 

[D. Rose]

I have to say, a Pierogi was something I always thought would be one of those next to impossible little buggers to make. I personally do not like Pierogis but that's ok, my whole family loves them! I seen your recipe and the dough seemed easy enough so I figured I would try to make them. I did cheat. I bought a bag of the frozen Mashed Potatoes. It was a bag from Alexi company or something like that that cooks in the Micro for 10 min. I then added 2 large handfuls of store bought shredded cheddar cheese & black pepper to the potato mix & started stuffing them & boiling them. Well.. they came out fantastic! my Dad who goes crazy for Pierogi's then fried them up in butter and said they were Polish Restaurant quality. Thank you so much for sharing! I will be using my Kraut recipe next as a filling!

 

[K.Dragon]

These pierogies are so awesome. We made them for the first time and they all look awesome and taste so delicious no matter if they are freshly cooked, fried or snacked out the fridge a few days later. We'll have pierogies very often from now on. Thank you for this recipe!!

 

[shortie4life74]

Yummy, I used gorgonzola cheese (mmm strong) instead of cottage and made the dough with wheat flour.