Emily's Cooking Blog

Filling Ingredients:

3 red potatoes, peeled and diced

½ c. cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Filling Preparation:

1. Boil potatoes until soft.

2. Mash the potatoes with the grated cheese, adding salt and pepper to take.

3. You can also add some fresh parsley, bacon bits, chives, or other enhancements if you desire.

4. Let the potato mixture cool and refrigerate.

5. The next day, form the dough into 1” balls.

Dough Ingredients:

2 c. flour (approximately)

1 c. full fat sour cream

Dough Preparation:

1. Mix together the flour and sour cream and work until the dough loses most of its stickiness (about 5-7 minutes)

2. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate.

3. Using your hands, roll the dough into the shape of a log.

4. Roll out the dough on a floured countertop until 1/8” thick. Cut circles of dough with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. OR Roll the dough into a log. Slice the log into 12 equal pieces. Mold each piece into a circle using your hands.

5. Place a ball of filling onto the circle, fold the circle in half, and pinch the edges closed with your fingers.

6. Boil the pierogies a few at a time in a large pot of water.

7. Pierogies are done when they float to the top (about 8 – 10 minutes)

8. Remove the pierogies from the water using a slotted spoon. Place in strainer for a few minutes.

9. Place piergies in a bowl and cover with sauted onions to prevent the pierogies from sticking to each other.

Source: Miller Cafeteria

Last week my commercial cooking class made pierogies. This was our last lab for the semester and it was a two-day assignment. On the first day we prepared the dough and the filling. This had to be completed quickly because it was a shortened class. Something that went well was the putting together of the two parts to make the pierogi. All of my group members worked very fast and shared the tasks making everything run smoothly. One thing that did not go so well was actually cooking our pierogies. One of them burst in the water and the filling leaked out making the water murky. Something that I learned in class that was very important to this recipe was how to pull the dough over top of the filling in the pierogies. If I were going to make this recipe again I would add more ingredients to the filling and the dough to give it some more flavor. I really enjoyed making this lab, it was unlike other cooking experiences I have had before.