Engineer, Turned Baker: Pierogi

Being from Pittsburgh I have enjoyed a pierogis all the time. There they are quite famous having many shops which specialize in only selling them and being famous enough to have a show at every baseball game where the pierogis ‘run’ through the city. Pretty crazy I know. For those of you who do not know this delicious Polish food which consists of a buttery, creamy dough that has a potato, cheesy filling inside that is crispy on the outside. Just delicious. You cannot go wrong with cooking this delicious recipe for dinner.

This recipe requires the following ingredients: all purpose flour, salt, sour cream, sharp cheddar cheese, butter, potato and an egg.

Combine flour and salt in bowl.

Crack in egg and work into dough.

If you were kneading by hand your dough might be more formed now, but either way is fine.

Next add a softened stick of butter. If it is not adequately softened it will take it a long incorporate into the dough.

Now the dough is forming into a nice rough dough. Throughout the entire process the dough will stay quite moist and this is normal. Do not worry.

I did a little light kneading by hand and formed it into a slightly lumpy ball.

Place in the refrigerator for 30 to 60 minutes. It can also be refrigerated for up to 48 hours. When the dough is cooling move on to the next step.

At this point I am making mashed potatoes. You can use any recipe or technique that you like. I am just showing what I do. I microwave the potatoes for 15-20 minutes then place in the bowl. I microwave them because its fast and easy.

I use the flat beater of the KitchenAid to breakup and mash the potatoes. Then milk and butter is added.

Once nicely mashed I add some salt and pepper.

Here are the final potatoes.

At this point or after enough time has passed for the dough to cool, roll out the dough to 1/8" thick.

Here is my flattened dough. Do not worry about the exact shape since it is going to be cut into 2" circles later.

After cutting into a 2" circle place a ball of potato in the middle of the dough circle.

Fold over the dough and pinch closed with a fork as shown below. This will give it its characteristic look.

Continue until you have used up all the dough and you should get around this many pierogis. I placed them on wax paper since I made these the day before cooking them.

Here are the pierogis in a glass dish getting ready to be refrigerated overnight. At this stage they can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours if needed.

Next, slice the onions in preparation for cooking them.

Next, get some water boiling and place around 10 pierogis in at a time. Do not over pack them as you do not want them to stick together. When they float they are done cooking. This should take around 10 minutes.