We're HOOKED On This Homemade Pierogi Recipe

Pierogi are hands down in my daughter's top five favorite things to eat of all time. We even go to Pierogi Fest every year. We love that they're easy to make, always tasty, and can have an assortment of fillings. But to pay tribute to my Olivia, we'll keep it simple with what she loves most, potato pierogi. Let's start off by knocking out some prep. Sound good? Let's cook. Let's start off on a clean surface. I have five total cups of all-purpose flour. What we wanna do is sift it. Now, you can use a traditional sifter or a fine mesh strainer like this. Both will work. Once you've sifted all the flour, we wanna create a well. You can do this with your hands or even just use this strainer. Next, I'm pouring in one and three quarter cup of hot water in between 140 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. At this stage, let's add in one teaspoon of coarse salt, then a quarter cup of any neutral flavored oil. I like avocado oil, but again, any neutral flavored oil will work. Now, it must just be the Italian of me because I think I'm making pasta right now. So I'm gonna use a fork and slowly start to bring the flour in to that water, salt, and oil mixture to hydrate the flour. Once it becomes more of a thick paste like this, I'm going to switch over to using a bench knife. It just makes things easier. And then just continue to bring all the flour in while mixing it in with that wet paste mixture. And once I brought in as much as I possibly can using that bench knife, I'm just gonna switch over to using my hands and know the flour and dough will not be hot. It will just be warm, totally fine to use bare hands. Once it is mostly together, one more little trick for you. I'm going to add in one whisk large egg. Now we do this at this stage because if we put it in with that hot water, it may want to scramble, so I'm going to avoid that. This egg will help add fat and flavor to our dough. Once you've added that egg on there, just continue to work that in there until it is completely combined and then knead the dough for five to seven minutes. Yes, you can also do this in a stand mixer using the hook attachment on low speed. It should be very smooth on the outside and be a soft dough. Now what I'm going to do at this point is just transfer it over to a container with a lid and let it rest for in between 30 and 60 minutes. And you know, comies, I am all about time management. So let's prep up a few things. Starting with one large yellow onion, you could use a white or a sweet. Slice off the end, slice it in half, remove that outside peel, and then small dice it. Then simply add them to a bowl, bring them over to the cooktop. I have a medium-sized stainless steel skillet. You could also use carbon steel, cast iron, or even nonstick. I'm adding in two tablespoons of unsalted butter, turning the heat up to medium. Once the butter has melted, ooh, popped a little bit there, let's add in our onions, and then let's give it a quick season of coarse salt, maybe a half teaspoon or so, to help draw out some of that moisture so they get more brown quickly. And what we're going to do is saute this for a total of four to five minutes. Come back every 20 to 30 seconds and give it a stir. Make sure nothing's burning or sticking. You'll start to notice that it'll become light brown just like this. After that four to five minute period, let's turn the heat from medium down to low medium. Now what we're going to do is cook it for an additional 10 minutes, occasionally stirring until it becomes a golden brown, just like this. Do not skip out on this. These caramelized onions are going to add incredible flavor to our pierogi. And for heaven's sakes, taste the onions. They're delicious. You should always try food throughout the entire process. It makes cooking so much more enjoyable. Let's set the onions to the side. A few more things to prep up. I have three total pounds, or about five large russet potatoes. We want to give these a quick peel. Then we're going to slice them in half long ways and then just thickly slice them. Really, if you want to roughly chop them, no problem. Let's bring these potatoes over to a large pot of boiling water. I'm going to season them with coarse salt until that water is as salty as the ocean. So in return, it will season up our potatoes. I'm dropping those potatoes in that large pot of boiling salted water. It's only going to take about six to eight minutes for them to finish cooking. We do not want them to be waterlogged and we do not want them to be al dente. We want them to be perfect. Now, the way that I know this is when I pierce them with a fork and they don't break apart at all, but that they easily slide right off the fork like this. Excellent. At this stage, let's remove the potatoes, give them a quick drain, and now it's time to mash them. Now, you could absolutely use a hand masher or even put them in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. For me, I'm old school. This is the way I was taught. I always run them through a food mill. It ensures there are no chunks and that's just how I like it. Feel free to do you. Once they are through the food mill, there's always a lot of goodness on the bottom, so I'm just going to use a rubber spatula to make sure I get all of it. Now, at this stage, it's time to add some fat. I have one stick of melted unsalted butter, then one cup of farmer's cheese. Now, farmer's cheese is just a pressed cottage cheese that's slightly more acidic and has a firmer texture, and it can be hard to find. A great substitute would be a full-fat small curd cottage cheese. It will work excellently. Now, using that rubber spatula, let's fold all of the ingredients together until combined. You still may see some small chunks of cheese. No problem. They will continue to melt throughout this process, and of course, when they're in our pierogi, and those are cooking. Now, a couple more things to add to this mixture. I'm adding in half of those caramelized onions. I'm going to season it now with some coarse salt and some ground white pepper. I want to keep the color consistent in this potato filling. Again, fold everything together with that spatula, and this should absolutely be a thicker potato filling. If it's too thin when you open up the pierogi, it's going to just run out. You don't want that. And of course, try it out. Season once, taste twice. Taste it, season it, taste it again. Does it need anything else? You be the judge here. Now, there are a few other ingredients and substitutes that you could add into this potato filling. Why not some sour cream or some heavy whipping cream? What about some mashed roasted garlic? I bet that'd be awesome. Swap out the cheeses. Try an aged white cheddar or a smoked gouda. And if you really want to make this next level, add in a half to a third cup of chopped crisp cooked bacon. Oh, now that is totally my language, but we're going to keep this to my daughter's liking, so it's going to stay as is. Now, let's roll out our dough. On a clean surface, we're going to give it a quick dusting of flour. Then let's pull out our pierogi dough. And what we're going to do immediately is cut it in half. Now, flatten out one of the halves a little bit with your hands. Give it a quick dust of flour. Then we are going to roll it out with a rolling pin. We want to get it until it's about an eighth inch thick. You don't want to go too thin and you don't want to go too thick. This looks perfect. Now, using a three inch cookie round cutter, I'm going to make as many rounds as possible all throughout that dough. So taking about one and a half tablespoons or so of that potato mixture, it's okay if it's a little more, a little less, let's add it right to the center of those cut out dough rounds. Then I'm going to gently remove it from that clean surface. And I'm going to start to stretch the dough out just a little bit. I want it to be enough to easily fold over that potato filling to meet the seam at the other end, making a beautiful crescent or half moon shape. Now, firmly pinch together the seams until it is completely closed. Take the time to do this because if the seams are not closed, when it boils, potatoes are going to come out everywhere and you are going to be really upset with me. So take the time to do this. This looks fantastic. Let's set it to the side. Now, say you're having an issue with the seams pinching together, just dab your finger with a little bit of cold water and run it on one of the sides of the potato filling after you fold the other piece over, pinch it together. That water will help bind the dough so that it sticks perfectly. This looks great. And if you want to make these a little more decorative, you can use a fork and press down where you met those seams together and press to make some small little lines in there. I know it's not much, but sometimes folks just want to make these a little bit more beautiful. So I just want to give you those options. Now, whether you're using this decorative approach or the other easy way that I showed you, repeat the process until all the dough and all the potato filling has been used. I set this on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Now, if you don't want to eat these now, this is when you add them to the freezer uncooked. Once they're frozen, add them to a bag or another container and pull them out. Add them to the water as many as you'd like and when you're ready to use them. And because I know you're going to probably ask, yes, you can absolutely re-roll out the dough where all the circle cuts were made. What you do is just re-knead it and then you're going to want to let it rest for another 30 to 60 minutes because it's been worked quite a bit and stretched before re-rolling it out. Now, this recipe will make 50 total pierogi. They look fantastic. And of course, now I'm going to start cooking, but I'm only going to do about 15 or so at a time. In a large pot of gently boiling water, I'm going to season it up with a little bit of coarse salt, help keep that water moving. Then I'm going to add in all 15 pierogi at one time, give them a quick stir. And these take about two to three minutes or so to cook or until they float at the top. Once they float, you can strain them and eat them. For me, I like to get a quick sear on them. So with about 30 seconds left in that pierogi cooking process, I'm going to add a large nonstick skillet right to my burner. You can use carbon steel, cast iron, or even stainless steel. I find nonstick to be the best here. Now I'm going to add in three to four tablespoons of unsalted butter, turn the heat up to medium. And as soon as the butter's melted, my pierogi should be finished. All floating, all looked excellent. Let's remove them from the water. Then I'm going to add them right to our butter. And it's okay if the butter starts to brown a little bit. It's just going to add some nice toasted nut flavors to these. I'm going to cook them for maybe just one to two minutes per side, or until they become lightly browned like this. And then I'm just going to give them a quick season of coarse salt. Of course, feel free to try one. Why not? Now I personally just like these a bit browned up, just enough to form a little crust on the outside. But my wife, she likes a bit more of a sear on there. So to do this, just cook them a further one to two minutes on each side so that they look just like this. And when they're done cooking, just remove them from the heat. These look so good and they smell amazing. Seriously. A couple of really quick things though. I work out at a CrossFit gym with a woman named Lucy, who's from Poland. I got to asking her so many questions before I made these. She told me that in Poland, there are so many different fillings. When she was a kid, they would find wild berries and that's what they would put in their pierogi and they would cook it and they would finish it in brown butter with sugar. And then they would have a little dip of heavy whipping cream, sour cream, and powdered sugar. I was like, oh, that's so good. That sounds amazing. She said sauerkraut is a huge filling or a combination of cooked bacon with ground beef and onions. The possibilities are endless. And I always say you're only limited by your own creativity. So be sure to have fun with these. All right, let me show you how I plate these up. Do you know what else Lucy told me that was crazy? Pierogi is plural and pierog is singular. I've been saying pierogis my whole life. Gosh, I'm terrible with this pronunciation thing. And just to give you a quick look on the inside of one of these pierogi, they look so good. Potato perfectly cooked, dough perfectly cooked. Now what I'd like to do is serve a bunch of these pierogi on a large plate just like this. Then I'm gonna garnish with the remaining caramelized onion and then of course a side of sour cream for dipping. Now Lucy told me in Poland they put dill on everything. And then a couple days later she told me, except for on pierogi. Well, too late and it's totally fine because guess what? Dill goes excellent with potatoes and another great garnish would be thinly sliced chives. These look so good. Simple food done really well. Using classical techniques. I mean, is there anything better? It just makes amazing food and always the best memories. I hope you and your family love these. Now if you love just comfort food, check out my lasagna bolognese. Oh, I just, it's just like 40 layers. It's so good. You will love it. I've got a great recipe video. See you on there.