Potato Pierogi

F.Y.I... Making Potato Pierogi for a snack is not recommended unless you can stand to listen to your stomach growling for 2 1/2 hours while you lovingly labor over these little guys. If you are willing to let your inner hunger monster go a little bit hungry then I believe these are well worth the effort. If you don't want to punish the inner hunger monster than I suggest starting these immediately after you have your breakfast or lunch so that way by the time they are ready you will be ready for a snack and keep the monster quiet.

I have only had Potato Pierogi once. Is the plural Pierogies? I only ask because in the original recipe when they direct to add half the batch to the boiling water they refer to them as Pierogi. I don't think Pierogi sounds right. I'm going with Pierogies. *Slapping myself on the hand if I'm wrong. Even if I'm wrong I'm still going to say it.* I've only had frozen Potato Pierogies and was turned off by their mushy texture. That experience made me reluctant to give these guys a try.

Throwing caution to the wind and giving it a here goes nothing attitude I forged ahead.

Pierogi Dough... see now why doesn't Pierogies work here? No wonder why the English language is so hard to understand. This is one of those times I wish Mrs. Wolfe, my high school English teacher, was here to explain it to me. Ugh! Sorry. Getting sidetracked as usual. Pierogi Dough, all dough for that matter, intimidated me. While I was mixing the ingredients and before kneading it for 7 minutes what I had looked like a flaky mess. After all of the therapeutic kneading I was left with a more formed dough and after a quick run to the computer to verify what Pierogi Dough should look like I was feeling more confident.

Boiling the baking potatoes and making the filling was a piece of cake pierogi. Mash all of the ingredients until smooth and viola! The most time consuming part is dividing the dough into 16 equal portions, rolling them out to 3 1/2 inch circles, filling the rounds with a rounded tablespoon of mashed potato filling, and then crimping them shut. Obviously after making 16 of them I still had difficulty sealing them shut because two of them broke open during the boiling stage. So I ended up with 14 of them and down one serving size.

By the time I got to browning them in the skillet I couldn't wait to try out my hard work and see if the Potato Pierogi could redeem itself from the frozen food flop.

Heavenly! First bite in was doughy with a smoothness from the mashed potato. They are very hearty on their own. Dipped in sour cream or not they were delicious and well worth the time spent in the kitchen preparing a snack for just myself since my toddler was taking a nap.

Potato Pierogi(es)

MyRecipes.com and Cooking Light, April 2004

Makes 8 servings (2 pierogies and 2 tsp sour cream) or 7 if you pull a Pretend Chef move

For the Pierogi Dough, Stars of the Show:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• cooking spray

And Action:

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Combine the sour cream , water, oil, and egg, stirring with a whisk. Add sour cream mixture to the flour mixture and stir until well combined. (Once again don't pull a Pretend Chef move and use a whisk for that step. The dough got stuck between the wires until the light bulb went off and I grabbed for the wooden spoon instead.) Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 7 minutes). Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Potato Pierogi, Stars of the Show:

I would recommend cutting the ingredients in half because I ended up with more than half of my potato filling leftover even with filling each dough round with a hefty tablespoon of the filling.

• 1 pound peeled baking potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes - That was 3 potatoes for me.
• 1 tbsp minced fresh chives or green onions - I used green onions since that was what I had on hand. I think this amount was too little to add any flavor so I recommend increasing this amount.
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 2 tbsp egg substitute - I don't care to buy the egg substitute and instead just beat an egg and used 2 tbsp of it.
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• Pierogi Dough
• 2 quarts water
• 1 tbsp butter, divided
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sour cream - I didn't even measure this amount out since I was the only only eating them. Since I'm all about serving sizes I just used a teaspoon and scooped out 2 tsp onto my plate.

And Action:

Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer. Let simmer for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain. Place potatoes back into a bowl (I just returned mine back to the pot. Why dirty another dish?) and mash until smooth. Add the fresh chives or green onions and the next 5 ingredients and blend well.

Divide the pierogi dough into 16 equal portions, shape each into a ball. Working with one portion at a time (cover the remaining dough to prevent it from drying out) roll each ball out into a 3 1/2-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.

Spoon 1 rounded tablespoon of the potato mixture onto half of the dough round. Bring opposite sides of the dough round together. PINCH tight to seal. Repeat until all the dough rounds have been filled and pinched closed.

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add half of the pierogies; cook 7 minutes or until done (they will rise to the surface when ready). That statement confused me because mine were starting to rise after only a couple of minutes. I kept them boiling for the full 7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place into a colander. Repeat until all the pierogies have been boiled.

Heat 1 1/2 tsp butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. (I had to turn my heat down to medium since mine were starting to burn.) Add 8 pierogies and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove the pierogies and keep warm by placing foil over them. Repeat adding 1 1/2 tsp butter and browning the remainder. Sprinkle the cooked pierogies with 1/8 tsp salt and serve with the sour cream.

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