Potato and Cheese Pierogi – A Recipe from Poland

Ella has a couple of friends in her class who are Polish and she seems quite interested in their culture so we decided to make some pierogi. They look like mini Cornish pasties but instead of baking them, they’re boiled. They’re traditionally filled with mashed potato and cheese from what I’ve been able to find out from Google and they’ve gone down quite well with most of the people in this house!

You can fill them with fruit instead of mashed potato so we’re going to try making some with apple cinnamon and serving them with cream and toffee sauce!

I’m sharing our first attempt at pierogi below and I apologise to any Polish people if any of it has been done incorrectly!

Pierogi Recipe

Makes approx 24 pierogi.

Potato and cheese pierogi ingredients

For the dough:

2 cups plain flour
1 egg
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive/vegetable oil

For the filling:

2 large potatoes, peeled and mashed
2 cups grated strong cheddar
1 large onion, finely chopped and fried until golden

Method

 

  • Mix the mashed potato, cheese and friend onion together. Don’t add any milk or butter as you don’t want the filling too wet. Let cool.
Potato and cheese pierogi
  • Mix all the dough ingredients together in a bowl. When it comes together, knead until smooth. Don’t over knead or the dough will be tough to work with (believe me, I know from experience!).
  • Rest, covered, for half an hour.

 

Potato and cheese pierogi
  • Roll out the dough until it’s about an eighth of an inch thick.

 

Potato and cheese pierogi
  • Using a cookie cutter (or the rim of a glass) cut out circles.

 

Potato and cheese pierogi
  • Pick up a dough circle and place in the palm of your hand. Keep the other circles covered with a wet tea towel to stop them drying out
  • Put about a tablespoon of filling into the middle of the dough circle then fold it over and pinch the edges together, making sure the edge is free of filling
Potato and cheese pierogi

 

Potato and cheese pierogi
  • You can dampen the edge with water before crimping if it doesn’t stick together easily
Potato and cheese pierogi
  • Drop about 5-6 pierogi into a large pot of boiling water and use a slotted spoon to move the water around the pot which will keep the pierogi from sticking together or to the bottom of the pan
Potato and cheese pierogi
  • When the pierogi float to the top, remove from the water and place on a plate that’s been coated with melted butter.
Potato and cheese pierogi

 

Potato and cheese pierogi

 

You can serve them straight away, tossed in melted butter or you can fry them up with some bacon like we did the next morning and had them for breakfast 🙂
Potato and cheese pierogi

This is a sponsored post.