Ukrainian Perogies, for Beginners

Ukrainian Perogies, for Beginners

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 32 mins
  • Yield: 48perogies

    • About This Recipe

    “Nothing is better than a fresh perogy, stolen from the bowl just after it has been cooked. Once a year, our family would spend a whole Saturday making these so we would have a stash to freeze and use for the next year. Fairly easy to make, but the instructions are just very descriptive.”

    Ingredients

    Dough

  • 2cupsflour
  • 1/2 cupmilk, warm
  • 1/2 cuppotato, well mashed
  • 1teaspoonsalt
  • 1tablespoonvegetable oil

    • Filling

  • 1/2 cupchopped onion
  • 1/4 cupbutter
  • 2 -3cooked potatoes, mashed
  • 1cupgrated cheddar cheese

    • Alternate Filling

  • 2 -3cupscottage cheese, drained( or use dry curd)
  • 1/3 cupfresh dill, chopped
  • 1egg
  • salt and pepper( taste before adding egg!)

    • Directions

  • Dough————–.
  • Mix dough ingredients together.
  • You may have to add more liquid or flour to make the dough soft and somewhat sticky.
  • Turn onto a floured surface and knead more flour into dough- just enough to make it easier to handle.
  • The dough will be slightly sticky.
  • Do not over-knead.
  • Place dough in an oiled bowl.
  • Cover and let rest for 30 minuets.
  • Filling———–.
  • Cook onion in butter.
  • Mix with potatoes, and add cheese while the mixture is still hot.
  • You may substitute Cheez Whiz for the cheddar.
  • Let filling cool before using (place in fridge.) If you are using the alternate filling, simply mix those ingredients together.
  • Manufacturing——–.
  • Set a large pot of water to boil.
  • Form walnut-sized balls of the filling.
  • Roll out dough on floured surface fairly thinly (3 millimeters, or 0.125 inch).
  • You will probably need to add flour as you roll.
  • Cut out circles approximately 7 1/2 centimeters (3 inches) in diameter (a wider-mouthed glass should do fine.) Press scraps into a ball.
  • Place filling ball in center of dough circle.
  • If the dough has a less-floury side, keep that side up.
  • Fold dough over ball, and pinch edges to form a half circle.
  • To prevent perogies with”horns”, I pinch at the top (“90 degree mark”) of the perogy first, then pinch at the 180 anddegree edges, working up to the 90 degree mark.
  • You can cheat pinching the perogies by smearing water on the filling side of the dough at the edges, and keep your fingers floured when you pinch (on the non-filling side.) In order to prevent perogies from drying out, keep finished perogies on a floured surface, and cover with a floured clean dishcloth.
  • Place several perogies in boiling water.
  • Stir once, gently with a slotted spoon.
  • Perogies are done when they float for a minute (this will take 2-3 minutes).
  • Melt about 1/2 cup of butter or margarine in microwave.
  • Rescue and drain the perogies with the slotted spoon.
  • Place in a bowl, drizzle with some melted butter, and gently shake to distribute the butter.
  • Cook, drain, and drizzle the other perogies in the same manner.
  • *Platzkies (pronounced “plutch-keys”): (The scrap dough is not tender enough to make into perogies, but make good”dumplings” by themselves.) Roll out scraps to approxamitely the same thickness as before.
  • Add minimal flour, and handle dough as little as possible.
  • Try to keep edges even.
  • Cut dough with a knife into strips about 8 cm (3 inches) wide.
  • Cut each strip into several triangles and/or squares.
  • Cook strips in water until they float.
  • Repeat draining and drizzling treatment as with perogies.

    • Reviews

  • “These are just like my cousin makes (at last I don’t have to BEG her to make them) Her MIL taught her to make them.”

  • “My husband went crazy for these perogies! After boiling them I fried them up with bacon onions and butter and they were the best perogies my family has ever eaten… Even better than my Ukrainian great great grandmothers! I also chopped up about 4 bacon strips into the filling as well.”

  • “I grew up with Varenyky (Ukrainian version of Polish Pierogies) and this is definitely an easier version of my mother’s recipe. That being said, I do think I prefer using traditional Farmer’s Cheese (vs. Cheddar or Cheez Whiz) and making separate batches of cheese-filled or potato-filled. We usually have an assortment of toppings that foks can choose from — sauteed onions, mushrooms, sour cream, applesauce, fruit compote, etc. Thanks for sharing your recipe – it’s great to see these foods shared and celebrated!”

  • “The correct spelling is ‘pierogies.’Pierogies is the pural. Pierogi is the singular.”

  • “I made these in New Zealand for my Maori friends – what a success!The recipe is exact with exact results.Yes, you’ll need to add flour as you roll.Do just what Kat says.While in New Zealand, after visiting my sister in Australia and hearing her pine for perogies, I thought of food.com and knew there’d be a recipe.Terrific recipe – my first time making them on my own…without one of my great Winnipeg Ukrainian friends.”

  • “This is a very easy and workable dough,very tender when cooked.I will make again.”

  • “These were great! I really enjoyed them but I have to say that they were a LOT of work for something that I think tastes pretty similar when bought at the store. Although I do love perogies and it was fun to try and make them, I would not go through this whole process every time I wanted potato dumplings. So long story short, if you can’t find perogies near you, this recipe is TOTALLY worth it. If you can, maybe not…”

  • “I love this recipe, I could only add one thing to it, I like to fry them in butter in a pan for 2 mins after they are boiled. Add chives and salt and pepper before serving them up with lots of sour cream and fried onions. Love the recipe! :)”

  • “These were fun to make and easy to work with, and stood up well to my alterations- which were several. I substituted whole spelt flour in the dough and omitted the cheese from the fillings. I also blended half the filling with steamed mashed carrots, the other half with spinach. I was looking for a way to get my kids eating more veggies, and since they love perogies so much….. any way, the result was good, but I would warn that using spelt does create a slightly ‘grainier’ product, which is not noticeable if sauteed in butter before serving, but if only boiled and served fresh from the pot (as my oldest child usually prefers) they are far less enjoyable. Thank you for making perogies easy! I will definitely make again.”

  • “Very nice recipe.I like the idea of using dill inside the filling.In our family (Polish) we also use farmer’s cheese with a little sugar to make sweet cheese Perogi.One thing we have started doing to cut down on the dough handling is to roll the dough into a long snake and then cut pieces to number to amount of small filling balls.Then each piece of dough is rolled flat and handled just once.I used your filling recipe, Kat, but stuck with the sour cream dough from Martha’s Living website.Loved the dill with the sour cream dough.We, too, do this once each year.About a week before Wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve Dinner) we make many, many batches of perogi for Wigilia and as far into the year as they will last.To cut down on prep time before Wigilia itself we cook off a few batches of the perogi, cool them on Pam-sprayed cookie sheets and spray the tops with more Pam, then freeze the cookie sheets.We can then put all the cooked, individually frozen perogi into a bag to be “warmed through” in some simmering water on Christmas Eve.”

  • “Theses were excellent! They were pretty simple to make and actually had my 4 yr old daughter help me fill them!!I did change a few things though. I was out of cheese, which would have made them much better. I also used instant potatoes since I was out of real ones, and it tasted great with them, and probably ended up being so much quicker and eaiser for me! I also added 3 cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper, and fresh parlsey for the filling. After I boiled them for about 8 minutes, I pan fried them with some pan spray and oil for about 5minutes and they were golden brown!!!!When I made them it came to 36 perogies, which I froze half and will use another time!!Thanks so much for sharing this, I’m definitely going to keep making this from now on!!!”

  • “gr8 recipe and easy to modify. Thanx alot”

  • “This took me about 2 hours to make from beginning to end using the potato cheddar filling but the results were worth worth the effort. The only change I made to the filling was to use garlic instant potatoes just to make things easier. Very good, very much comfort food. Thanks!”

  • “These were wonderful! I didn’t quite get 48 out of my batch, maybe about half, but those 24 were absolutely yummy! I will make these again! Better than any store-bought by far.”

  • “I love this recipe. I have attempted to make perogies before and there turned out horrible. This recipe was easy to follow, easy to make and tasted amazing. I found it was hard to roll out the dough thin, I sprinkled a bit of water while rolling out and found that helped alot. Other then that it was great”

  • “Awesome! I made these with my kid’s cooking class and it was a huge hit. Many of the kids had no idea you could make your own perogies, lol! The only thing I did differently was to use instant potato flakes instead of an actual potato just to make things easier as I was going to have to peel a whole pile of potatoes for 120 kids!! This recipe fit well into my ‘around the world’ theme. Thanks!”

  • “I used this recipe for my first attempt at making perogies.They turned out great!I used 5 good sized potatoes but found that I had such a large amount of filling that I had to triple the dough recipe.Ended up with 53 perogies.Will definitely make these again when the stash in the freezer runs out!”

  • “These are WONDERFULL!!!l live in Portugal for allmost twenty years, and have not made perogies since l left Canada. So, when l came apon this recipe, it brought back old memories of Thunder Bay and the “Hoito” restaurante.(famous for its perogies for over 100 years)lt really was easy to make and l followed to the T. We had them last night and my parents said they were Great!! My husband who has never had perogies before alsoloved them. Thanks for the recipe , l will make them again and again.Really soft and tender dough.”

  • “I am only reviewing the perogie and cheddar cheese filling, it took me much longer than the 32 but the results were well worth it. My DD and DH gobbeled them right up. They freeze beautifuly, they taste as fresh as the day we made them. Thanks for Posting!”

  • “Really loved working with this dough, and being able to roll the filling really helped keep the mess down and the amount of filling right.Super easy to make, but takes more prep time than stated, if you start with boiling the potatoes.I’d say about 1 hour. (I made the filling the night before.) Try using sharp cheddar for the filling if you like more punch, and I used about 1 tbls butter and then a bit of milk to moisten the filling and cut down the fat.Also used whole wheat flour to add to the nutritional value, but would recommend mixing 60% whole/40% white.Thanks for sharing a really great recipe!”

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