Pierogi: Polish Dumplings

Starting with cold water ensures that the potatoes are more evenly cooked. Slowly raising the temperature of the water gives the center of the potato time to increase in temperature with the rest of the potato before the water is hot enough to break down starch molecules.

If you add the potatoes to boiling water the outside will immediately begin to cook while the inside is still cold. In these cases, the outside starts to flake off and get waterlogged far in advance of the center being tender. This leads to watery and gummy potatoes.

The less surface area that touches the water, the less water logged the potato will get, and the drier the filling will be. A drier filling is important with dough that is very water soluble. If the dough gets too wet it gets sticky and/or disintegrates.

This also ensures there is more potato taste for the same reason. The less water absorbed by the potatoes the better.

The American and Velveeta cheeses are so melty that they thin out the potato mixture and ensure a creamy texture without the ricer.

Farmer’s cheese is crumbly, so I use the potato ricer and a bit of créme fraîche to give the mixture the creamier texture it’s lacking.

Tiny pieces of sauerkraut are easier to compact and envelope in the dough with success. We started to blitz or chop our sauerkraut strands so they wouldn’t get stuck in a seam or half-in and half-out of a pierog years ago. When that happens you either need to abandon the whole pierog and throw the dough away or pull out the strand and hope others aren’t attached to it. Then you need to try to seal the hole it made before boiling.

Remember, a hole in the pierogi, at best, means waterlogged filling and, at worst, means a pierogi fully opening. And, a pierogi open in a pot of water means lots of dissolved filling in the water. In these cases, you need to refill the pot and re-boil the water before you can start again. No thanks!

Sure! In my family, we sweetened regular sauerkraut with thinly sliced and chopped apples before we found the Bavarian style sauerkraut in stores. If you cannot find anything but regular sauerkraut, buy a few crisp apples as well as regular sauerkraut. Then add the chopped apple, a bit at a time, to the sauté pan with the sauerkraut, to sweeten it to your tastes.

If you cannot find farmer’s cheese, don’t worry, use whole milk ricotta. You can make a similarly textured filling by straining the liquid out of ricotta with a cheesecloth and dumping that into the potatoes. It will be a bit more creamy and mild than farmer’s cheese, but the créme fraîche can help add some tang back in. Feel free to add the créme fraîche to taste.

Like I said, measure with your heart. lol. Honestly, the more room temperature butter you use the less chance the pierogi have of sticking to each other at any given time. And, when you heat them up, a lot of the butter will melt off anyway. I would likely use 1-2 sticks (113.5-227g) of butter for this recipe.

Make the fillings up to 3 days in advance. I suggest, you check them everyday to see if there is any excess moisture on the inside of the containers. If so, gently wipe any water off the lids or filling surfaces with a paper towel.

The dough is best fresh. Make it the same day you intend to use it.

TLDR… Yes. But, you may need to add a bit more water to the dough.

Long answer… First, the 00 refers to how finely ground the flour is which ranges from 00 to 2. And, 00 flour is the finest level of ground flour. This means a lighter, softer dough.

But that’s not everything you need to know. For rolling purposes, King Arthur 00 flour’s protein content is 10.5% and all purpose flour protein is between 10 and 11.7%. This creates a nicely structured dough, with either type of flour, great for rolling out on a counter!

Finally, the main difference is textural. Because 00 flour uses soft wheat and AP flour uses hard wheat, 00 flour doughs are just that, soft.

Of note: As AP flour uses hard wheat and has a higher protein content, it will likely need more water than the recipe calls for. Add 1/2 tablespoon (7.5ml) of water at a time until it results in the described dough in the recipe.

This one is pretty straightforward. Yes, these flours would ensure a very soft-textured dough. However, they would have so little gluten that stretching the dough around the fillings would be very difficult. Can you use them? Yes! Would I recommend it to a beginner or even intermediate dumpling maker? NOPE!

I got you!
1. Increase the dough recipe by at least 50%: If you are just starting out on this or any similar dough-filled journey, make more dough so you can practice or throw out broken rounds without stressing about it.
2. Use a larger cookie/biscuit cutter: If you are new to making dumplings of any kind, do yourself a favor and make the dough rounds bigger. It gives you more forgiveness on filling placement and amount. And, even if you cut off more excess dough than I do, will anyone notice on the final product? Nope!

Thank you for asking. Yes, yes they can! Here’s the deal. The next day or even just after you make them, take a few pierogi and throw them into a pan on medium high heat. The butter you slathered them in will melt so you won’t need any extra oil or butter for the pan. While they start to cook, slice up some onion. Cook the first side of the pierogi until it is browned to your liking and then flip them over. At that same time, add in the onion and let them sauté down and char a bit. When everything is cooked, plate the pierogi and onions with a large dollop of sour cream on top and enjoy.

You can also sauté the onions separately if you want to do a big batch. I prefer this, because onions, and because onions and pierogi tend to cook at different rates, so your timing has to be pretty good if you cook them at the same time.