Problematic Pierogies x 2. Before I share my woes, an announcement. I had never made pierogi/pierogis/perogies before, and I had never even eaten pierogies before, so I had no idea what I was doing, BUT I tried two different recipes attributed to Stefanie and both had problems. Any pierogi experts out there? I would love your opinion on why each of these recipes failed so badly for me.
The first was one I found on the internet, on a site called Stefanie Powers News, run by the mysterious Meredy (I’ve often wondered who Meredy is and where she has disappeared to as she used to run this site – Classic Celebrity Recipes – until it seemed to be hacked by The Best Baker in America).
Old-Fashioned Pierogies
2 1/2 cups self-rising white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 teaspoons oil
3/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup cottage or hoop cheese
2 1/2 cups cold mashed potatoes
For Pockets:
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg, oil and water to make a soft dough. Knead dough until smooth, divide in half and let sit in covered bowl for 10-15 minutes.
For Cheese and Potato Filling:
Cook onion in butter on skillet until soft, then combine it with cheese, potatoes, and egg. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare a large pot of boiling water. Roll dough thin on a floured board. Use biscuit cutter to make large rounds. Place a round in your hand and place a spoonful of filling into it. Fold over edge to make a half circle, and crimp the edges. Drop two pierogies at a time into boiling water. Stir gently so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil 3-4 minutes until puffed, and remove from water with a slotted spoon. Allow to cool. Drizzle with melted butter and crisp chopped bacon.
Serves 4
So my problem with this one was that the dough was seriously wet. Too wet to roll out, even after I’d added more flour. The consistency just wasn’t right so I had to bin it, plus the filling I had made too. I hate wasting food but I knew this wouldn’t freeze well so in the bin it had to go.
I am guessing something went awry in the transcribing of this recipe for the website?
So then I tried another recipe attributed to Stefanie, this time with a bonus of sauerkraut in the filling which is A-OK with me as I love sauerkraut.
This recipe made a HUGE AMOUNT! If I had made the full recipe I reckon I would have had enough perogies to feed the entire cast and crew of an episode of Hart to Hart.
Here’s my one portion (I pinched the idea of topping with bacon from Stefanie’s first recipe and I fried the pierogies in butter after boiling them because I had seen this around the Googleverse).
I’d say half the recipe would easily make enough for 4 people. You will have lots of the filling left over. I certainly did, which I thought about long into the night, what could I do with all this cheesy, potatoey, eggy stuff if not put it inside pierogies? On the left is all the sauerkraut mixture I had left over, on the right is the leftover cheesy part of the filling.
I made some of the eggy mixture into breakfast pancakes and the sauerkraut mix lived in a Kilner in a jar for a very long time. So, friends who may have perogies experience, what do you make of the dough ingredients in the first recipe and the enormous quantities in the second recipe?
Here’s recipe #2 which I think I will use in the Cooking the Detectives book with a BIG disclaimer about the quantity of filling.
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Not a pierogi expert, but I love to read recipes and my guess as to what went wrong in the first recipe is the water. This is the first pierogi recipe I’ve seen that has you putting water in the dough. Usually it’s just: flour, salt, egg, and butter or sometimes: flour, salt, egg and sour cream. I could see using oil instead of butter, but that amount of water would make a sopping wet dough for sure! Sorry you had to bin it!
Ahhhh, thanks A – that makes me feel so much better. I thought I’d done something dumb with the first dough, just couldn’t get my head around why it was so wet. There was no way I could have rolled it out. I hate throwing food away but I just read a great piece by an Italian food writer friend who says that the tradition in his family was to kiss any food really, absolutely, definitely had to throw away. Will try doing that from now on to make myself feel less guilty! A wet pierogi dough kiss!
Haha! I like that! I’ll have to do that next time I have to throw something away, give it a wet pierogi dough kiss.
I may have started something here…
I have never made perogies, but since I grew up in a part of Canada which experienced a lot of immigration from perogie-places, I had them growing up and I do still like to eat them now and then.
Fortunately for me, there are multiple options at the local shop, including a whole fridge devoted to fancy-pants perogies.
(They’re fancy because they have a drawing of a grandma-type on the clear package and they cost more than the kinds that come in the cardboard boxes mixed in with the frozen dinners.)
I usually eat them for lunch, and hardly ever have more than three (okay four) at time. Sometimes I’ll fry them but usually I’m lazy and just boil them. Bacon is good, and so it topping with sour cream! Whenever I have to get sour cream for something else, I make sure I have some leftover so I’ll *need* to get perogies to finish the sour cream off.
I’ve also used salsa on them, because why not?
Maybe you have so much filling mix in the second recipe because you’re meant to use it as topping too?
Oh WOWZER, frozen perogies – what a TREAT! I love hearing about food in different countries that I CAN’T GET! I envy you. The last line of your comment is GENIUS and I will credit you for that idea in the book! You could be right, there was SO MUCH left over x
Here in central NYS we have some Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian citizens, some of who make pierogies to sell for their church socials. But I just buy a box of the frozen in the grocery store, there are many varieties, less than $5 a box, that can be fixed up with more mushrooms, more spinach, some bacon bits, more cheese and scallions and sour cream…. Also an expensive frozen line made locally with many odd fillings besides cheese and potato. Pulled pork, buffalo chicken, jalapeno. …. I’ve tried making my own pierogies, too, in the past. My problem was the dough was too stretchy! Too much work! (the frozen kind are OK, not as good as hand-made, though)….as for the leftover filling you had, I would make potato pancakes (adding instant mashed potato flakes if the filling was too wet).
Ooooh, thanks Sally! Reading this has made me very hungry indeed! I got an email from reader VT who told me that she too could get a vast array of pierogies in her local supermarket in Canada and my immediate thought was WHY CAN’T I GET PIEROGIES IN MY LOCAL SUPERMARKET! Haha. When I took some time to check, my groceries delivery company has them so I’ve got some in my fridge right now to try. Will report bak!