Get the Recipe: Pierogi
Pierogi are good boiled, but they are transcendent fried in onion butter and slathered in sour cream. Try them both ways!
Ingredients
American Cheese & Potato Filling
- 1½ lbs russet potatoes, 2-4 potatoes depending on their size
- 10, American cheese slices
- 8 oz Velveeta cheese in 1/4in (.5cm) slices
Farmer's Cheese & Potato Filling
- 1½ lbs russet potatoes, 2-4 potatoes depending on their size
- 2, 7.5 oz Friendship Dairies farmer's cheese packages
- ⅓ cup créme fraîche
- kosher salt to taste
Sauerkraut Filling
- 3, 32 oz jars of Silver Floss Bavarian Style Sauerkraut
Pierogi Dough
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 cups King Arthur 00 flour
- 1 cup water
Equipment
- 1 peeler (both potato and cheese fillings)
- 1 beater attachment for a stand mixer (both potato and cheese fillings)
- 1 potato ricer (only farmer's cheese and potato filling)
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer (sauerkraut)
- 1 large sauté pan or skillet (sauerkraut)
- 1 wooden spatula (sauerkraut)
- 1 stand mixer with whisk and dough hook attachment
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 3.5in (9cm) round cookie/biscuit cutter
- 1 thin sheet or tablecloth (optional)
- 1 #50, small cookie scoop
- 1 3in (7.6cm) round ravioli stamp (or a cup with the same circumference)
- 1 large pot
- 1 slotted spoon or spider strainer
- 2 baking trays or chafing dishes
- 1 kitchen towel, dampened
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Instructions
Farmer's Cheese & Potato Filling
- Place a medium pot of water with a generous helping of kosher salt, on your stove top. Peel the potatoes and add them whole to the cold water. If there are any potatoes that are a significantly larger size, cut those to match the others. You want the chunks to be as large as possible. Bring the water to a simmer, and boil the potatoes until they are fork tender. (A simmer means the surface of the water should move but not break. No bubbles)
- Once cooked, drain the potatoes and put them through a potato ricer into into the bowl of a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on low and add the farmer’s cheese and créme fraîche (pronounced krem FRESH). Mix until everything is well incorporated. The farmer's cheese will always stay a bit crumbly. Add salt to taste, if needed. Place in a plastic container in the fridge to cool completely.
American Cheese & Potato Filling
- Place a medium pot of water with a generous helping of kosher salt, on your stove top. Peel the potatoes and add them whole to the cold water. If there are any potatoes that are a significantly larger size, cut those to match the others. You want the chunks to be as large as possible. Bring the water to a simmer, and boil the potatoes until they are fork tender. (A simmer means the surface of the water should move but not break. No bubbles)
- Once cooked, drain the potatoes and put them directly into the bowl of a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on low and add in a few slices of Velveeta and American cheese at a time. As each few pieces of cheese melt, add in more until all of the cheese is used. The potato mixture will become smooth and yellow. Scrape the mix into a plastic container and place it in the fridge to cool completely.
Sauerkraut Filling
- To start, drain the sauerkraut in a strainer, over a bowl. Set the easy to strain juice aside and then squeeze out any additional juice into the sink, to get it as dry as you can. Chop the sauerkraut strands down with a chef's knife or give them a few pulses in a food processor.
- On your stovetop, pre-heat a large skillet or sauté pan to a medium temperature and dump the sauerkraut directly into the pan, no oil or butter. Toast the sauerkraut with a wooden spatula until the pieces turn medium brown and don't readily stick to each other.
- If the sauerkraut sticks to the pan so much that you cannot scrape it off, use the strained juice to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Keep in mind, the point of frying is to toast and dry out the sauerkraut. Any, moisture added will need to be cooked off again.
- This should take roughly 25-30 minutes. When done, turn off the heat and let the toasted sauerkraut cool enough to stop steaming. Scrape it into a container and place it in the fridge to chill.
Pierogi
- When the fillings are completely chilled, it's time to set up your work spaces. It's best to have three separate areas: 1. the dough area; 2. the pierogi making area; and 3. the pierogi cooking area.
- For the dough area, clear a very large space to roll out the dough. Heavily dust it with flour and make sure to have your rolling pin, dough round cutter, and extra flour at-the-ready.
- For the pierogi shaping area, lay down a tablecloth or thin sheet of some kind, also dusted with flour, to keep the pierogi from sticking. Also put out the filling, a spoon, a ravioli press or cup, and extra flour.
- For the last space, you'll need a large pot filled ¾ of the way with water, a baking tray with softened butter (measured with your heart), a spider or slotted spoon, and a separate tray or serving dish to place the boiled and buttered pierogi.
- Now you are ready to make the dough. To do this, use a stand mixer, with whisk attachment, to whip the eggs until they start to foam and gain volume. Add the salt and continue whisking for about 10 seconds. Then, add flour and water to the mixer a little at a time. Use all of the water but not all of the flour. The dough should be the consistency of pancake batter. At this point, switch out the whisk for the dough hook and add in the rest of the flour. The dough is ready when the flour is fully incorporated and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is sticking at all to the bottom of the bowl when fully mixed and all the ingredients are in, add about ½tbsp (4g) of flour at a time until the dough is spinning freely of the bowl.
- As soon as this is achieved, stop the mixer and let the dough hydrate under a damp cloth for 20 minutes. When rested, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto your floured work surface. Cut a portion of the dough off and place the damp towel back over the remaining dough. Roll your portioned dough out as thin as you can get it (roughly 1/16in or .16cm). Add flour to your surface, as you roll, to stop the dough from sticking to your counter. When ready, cut 3.5in (9cm) circles out of the dough with a large biscuit or cookie cutter. Make each new circle as close as possible to the previous circle. Once all the circles have been cut into your rolled out dough, pull up the scraps and ball them up. You can throw this away or also put it under the damp towel to rehydrate and relax.
- Next, turn on the burner for the pot full of water, so it comes to a slow boil while you make the pierogi.
- Now, use a tablespoon or #50 cookie scoop to portion out some filling. There should be about 20-25g of potato filling by weight per scoop and/or 15g of sauerkraut per scoop. Make sure your hands are well floured. This helps you shape the filling into a semi-circle without it sticking to your fingers. Place your shaped filling onto a dough round. You want it to be in the center of the back-half of the circle, not the exact center. This way, it's easier fold the front-side of the dough over the filling without it stretching and breaking.
- As soon as you have the front of the circle folded over the filling, press down where the dough overlaps to create an initial seal and keep the filling from falling out. (This is more important with the sauerkraut filling, but it's still a good habit to have.) Next, use a round ravioli stamp or a plastic cup to cut off the excess edge of the pierogi and make a really good seal. (For a more traditional style, use your fingers to press the edges together) Make absolutely sure to inspect the edge for holes. If they aren't sealed, water can get in during the boiling process.
- When about 8-10 pierogi are made, place them into the pot to gently boil. After about 6-8 minutes, take out the pierogi and transfer them to the baking tray with several pats of butter. Shake the tray from side-to-side, ensuring that the pierogi are all very well coated in butter. Transfer the finished pierogi to a secondary dish or tray for storing or serving.
- You can then begin again wherever needed: boil the next 8-10 pierogi; shape new pierogi; or roll out more dough, etc. until all of the filling and dough is gone.
- Top with onion butter, salt, and/or sour cream to enjoy.
Notes
- Each type of filling needs one batch of dough. So, if you intend to make all three fillings you will need to triple the dough recipe or cut down the filling recipes.
- Fair warning, each filling recipe and the base dough recipe makes between 45-55 pierogi as written.
- Make the potato and cheese pierogi fillings the night before shaping the pierogi to allow the fillings to fully cool. Sauerkraut can be made a few hours in advance.
- You can reuse the dough scraps a second time, but know they will be a bit more tough, as you have developed more gluten by rolling it out. It will also be drier because if the additional flour from first use.
- If you are not serving the pierogi right away but want to keep them warm, cover them as tightly as possible with aluminum foil and place them in your oven on the lowest setting.
- To store or freeze pierogi, know you are combatting moisture and fragility of the dough in combination. The first way to fight this, is with the butter coating after boiling. This allows you to keep them in the fridge for 2-3 days without them sticking to each other. If you want to save them longer by freezing them, lay them flat, not touching, and in layers with wax paper between them. This way you can pull them out individually to reheat. Pierogi freeze well for about 2 months if sealed properly from freezer burn.