Homemade Ruskie Pierogi (Pierogies) Recipe

Y’all, I made Pierogi for the first time ever when we first moved to Florida.  My kitchen is so much bigger than it was in our apartment in NJ, so I actually had room to make these.  My mom started making them several years ago, and I’ve asked her for the recipe multiple times, but she doesn’t follow a recipe, she just makes them off the top of her head.  I didn’t understand this mentality until I made them myself, especially the dough portion.  I found a recipe online that I basically half way followed.  The portion for the dough was definitely NOT enough for how much filling was made.  So depending on how many pierogi you are wanting to make, you may have to alter this recipe a bit.  I made enough pierogi to last us for an entire week haha!  I swear, it felt like I made 100 pierogi, but I think I made about 30-40.  The great part is though, is once you make them you can freeze them and reheat them later.  The way that I like to eat them is to boil them, because I like it when they are soft, I don’t like fried pierogi, but this is just a personal preference.  Let’s jump into the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

The Dough

• All Purpose Flour-My mom, brother, and I noticed that King Arthur is the BEST flour to use for making pierogi.  There’s something about it that makes it more elastic than regular flour.  I would say have several cups worth depending on how many pierogi you’re making.
• Lukewarm Water
• Eggs

For every 2 cups worth of flour you will need 1 egg and about 1 cup of lukewarm water (give or take), you will figure it out as you go depending on how the dough acts.

Potato Cheese Filling-This makes about 30-40 pierogi worth of filling

• 2 lbs russet potatoes (you’ll need to boil them)
• 2 tbs worth of minced and sauteed onions (about, you can put more or less depending on what you prefer)
• 8 oz of cream cheese-or if you have farmer’s cheese readily available that will taste much better, but I don’t have that available unless I go to the farmer’s market here.
• Salt and Pepper-the amounts all depend on what your taste buds prefer

DIRECTIONS

1. Boil the 2 lbs of potatoes until you can stick a fork in them and they are super soft.
2. First what you will do, is take about half of a small onion and mince it.  Heat up some oil in a pan and sautee the onions.  Make sure they don’t get burnt, they will need to be translucent and mushy as I like to say haha.
3. Put the onions to the side.
4. Take your finished potatoes and use a fork to break them up.  DO NOT MASH, because then it gets too “sticky.”
5. Add your cream cheese to the potato mixture.
6. Add your onions.
7. Now it’s time to make your actual pierogi.  As stated above, for every approximately 2 cups of flour add about 1 cup of lukewarm water and 1 egg.  You’ll see when it actually turns into a dough.  You’ll need to sprinkle flour on a clean surface and have a cup that is about 2 inches big so you can make equal circles for each pierog.  Make sure that the dough is thin enough so that the pierogi aren’t all dough (I made this mistake on the last batch of pierogi) but not too thin where they will fall apart when they boil.
8. Sprinkle flour on a baking sheet, this is where you will put your “finished” pierogi that are ready to be boiled.
9. Once you add the filling (you’ll be able to judge how much is enough when you go to close the pierogi), pinch them shut.  I like the aesthic of also using a fork to make the outside have ridges, but you don’t have to.  This is just an added step.
10. Once you have a fair amount of pierogi made (I would go by one baking sheet worth) put about 6 of them into a boiling pot of water that is also salted.  Once you add the pierogi bring it down to a medium heat.  Let the pierogi float to the top, and that’s when you know they are ready!
11. You can either eat them right away, or you can freeze them and save them for another time!

The recipe is super easy, but this is time consuming.  I was in the kitchen for about 4 hours my first time making them.  My mom used to spend hours in the kitchen as well, but she used to make LOTS of pierogi so that she had them for a while.  They obviously don’t taste as good after being frozen as opposed to fresh out of the pot, but they are still good.  You can use toppings like carmelized onions, bacon bits, sour cream or a healthier alternative to sour cream is plain greek yogurt, or I love putting shredded cheese on them.

There are so many different fillings you can use for pierogi.  My grandma made a lot of fruit flavored ones, and my mom has made them with sauerkraut and diced mushrooms, or meat.  You can get so creative with pierogi!  Let me know if you’ve ever made pierogi before and what flavors!