Guest post: How to make Pierogi

Photo from wikipedia commons

I am delighted to have a guest post today from Trudy Abood, VP of  GourmetGiftBaskets.com, all about pierogi. You can read more about Trudy at the end of the post. My husband is half Polish, so I've heard about these, but never tried making them. You can bet I'll be trying out this recipe. This post is sponsored by gourmetgiftbaskets.com.


Pierogi may not seem like a fashionable food, but they’re all over the place (and pretty delicious).  Freezers at the super market are stocked full of them and they even come in special gift baskets.  But, if you have a little time to spare, you can make your own.  The ingredients are incredibly nonthreatening – you basically can’t get anymore simplistic. 

And though it’s thought of as a traditional Polish food, it isn’t.  Perogi recipes can be found all over the globe. 

I come from a German household and so does the recipe I use.  As is usually the case with old family recipes, I pretty much had to steal this from my mother years ago when I attempted to make it for the first time.  Yeah, sure, it looks simple, but make no mistake that turning out a perfect batch of these took me the better half of a day.  This recipe also yields about 3 dozen pierogi – kind of a lot.  So, have a party, freeze them, or make some gift baskets of your own.

Dough:

4 cups flour

3 eggs

½ tsp of salt

½ cup of water

On your counter, make a well with the flour and add the eggs and salt.  Mix it all together and add enough water to make a slightly soft dough.  Knead this mixture until small, blisters begin to appear.  (At this point, your dough should be pretty soft).  Divide your dough into two parts, rolling out one portion at a time until it’s quite thin, and cut into 2-inch squares.  Place about 1tsp of filling on each square, and fold the dough in half.  Dip your fingers in water and pinch the edges of the dough shut to create the perfect Pierog (that’s actually the singular form).

Filling:

You can pretty much fill them with whatever you’d like.  From spinach to fruit, there’s a recipe.  My great-great-someone’s recipe is classic and has two options for fillings.

Cheese Filling: ½ pound of cottage cheese mixed with 1 egg and beaten.

Potato Filling: 1 pound of mashed potatoes, 3 tbsp butter, ¼ pound of yellow cheese, and ½ tsp of salt.

After you’ve stuffed the dough with whatever you want, drop your perfect pockets of doughy goodness into salted boiling water.  Let them cook in the water until they begin to rise to the top, which takes about 10 minutes.  From there, brown them in a pan with butter and onions.  Comfort food never tasted so good.

About the author: Trudy Abood is the VP of GourmetGiftBaskets.com, one of the top suppliers of quality gift baskets. She is a mom of 2 boys, one of which founded GGB and the other is also VP at the company. She formerly owned Chalifour's Flowers in Manchester, NH; the largest flower shop in the state.