Monday, December 31, 2007

Homemade Pierogi (Pedeha) Recipe!

Well apparently someone DOES want to make homemade pierogi! I got an email today from a reader asking for the recipe!

Here goes!

Dough
3 Cups Flour
1 Egg
1 TBSP Melted Butter
1 Cup Water
1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix together and knead for a short time until elastic. Cover with damp (but not soaking) cloth.

Filling
2 1/2 lbs Potato, peeled, boiled and mashed
1 lb Farmers Cheese
1-2 oz Cream Cheese
2 slices American Cheese (according to my grandma this replaced something my great grandma could not get over here!)

Add all cheeses to potatoes after potatoes are mashed and still hot. Mix to combine and melt cheese a little.

Now comes the long part. First of all, it will seem like the dough will not possibly make 60 of these. It will. I promise. You need to take a little bit and roll it into a ball. Then flour your surface really well and roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it's really thin and round.

Put a good amount of the filling on one side. Fold the dough over and use a little water around the edge to help seal it. Pinch closed. Repeat 60 times..... While you are doing this keep the ones you have finished on wax paper covered with a damp cloth.

When you have made all of them bring a big pot of water to a simmer. DO NOT BOIL. If you boil these they will fall apart. Put a few in at a time and cook for about 5 minutes. You'll soon be able to tell how many you can put in your pot without them sticking together. They will rise to the top. When they do, take them out with a slotted spoon if you have one. Put them on a buttered plate or back onto the wax paper (Where you have brushed some melted butter) brush the tops with melted butter and let cool. Repeat 60 times.

When they are cool, store in an airtight container between wax paper.

To cook melt some butter and fry them up in a pan. We serve them with Sour Cream and 5 lbs of onions that my grandma has chopped and simmered in butter for a few hours. I remember a long time ago some of these were made with Sauerkraut as well. But since the kids didn't ever like those my grandma stopped making them.

This recipe can also be doubled if, god forbid, you want to make 120 of these!

Let me know how they turn out!!!!

1 comment:

Mrs. B said...

I'm making these tomorrow for my (Ukrainian) husband's birthday. Lets hope they taste like his Babushka's pierogi... it may not be the expensive gift he want, but hopefully the time/effort I am putting into this will be appreciated! Thanks for posting the recipe!