The Tasty Life: Home Made Perogies!

A few months back my cousin mentioned that she has always wanted to make perogies from scratch, so when she was coming to visit for a weekend of skiing fun I thought it would be a great time to make them together. Although I have made perogies before on my own, it was definitely easier, and more fun, to make them with someone. We took turns being the roller/cutter and the filler to make an assembly line of tastiness...all the while drinking wine to make the work merrier:)

We made a traditional bacon/onion/cheese perogie and we also got creative and made jalapeno/onion/cheese, sweet potato/bacon, and mushroom/onion/cheese fillings. They all turned out great...well, I didn't try the mushroom one, but my cousin and her boyfriend told me they were delicious! They really do taste so much better than the frozen ones.

When making the dough you will find it very elastic-y. I found I would have to keep rolling it out after cutting a few circles. But the elasticity did make it easier to stretch the dough around the filling. And when it came to the filling I didn't measure anything, I just mixed mashed potatoes with all the different ingredients I wanted and figured if there was leftover filling I would just eat it on its own. Which my cousin did with the mushroom filling. For this recipe I will give an approximation of what we used for each filling, but if you want it cheesier or less oniony just use what you would like in the fillings. I did want to make a sweet apple and cinnamon filling too, but we just didn't have the time, or the energy. All together we made over 50 perogies, and we ate most of them too! They were just so yummy!

Home Made Perogies

For the dough:

3 cups flour, plus more for kneading

1 cup water

1 egg

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

(potato/cheese/onion/bacon, potato/cheese/onion/jalapeno, potato/cheese/onion/mushroom, and sweet potato/bacon)

6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 cups cheddar cheese

3 onions, chopped

6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

3 jalapeno peppers, finely diced

1 large sweet potato

3 shitake mushrooms, finely diced

any other fillings you would like to try

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl. Beat the water, egg, and oil with a fork in a separate bowl and then add to the flour. Slowly mix in with a wooden spoon until the dough forms (it may still be a bit crumbly). Transfer onto a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes, sprinkling with flour to prevent sticking. The dough should be smooth and start to feel stretchy. Invert a bowl over the dough and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. (This will give you time to get the other ingredients ready.)

Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water until cooked through. Drain and use a hand-mixer to puree them. Divide the potatoes and cheese into three bowls. Bake the sweet potato, or microwave it, until it is cooked through and then scoop out the pulp and place it in a bowl. Fry the onions until well-done and add to 3 of the bowls of potato. Fry the mushrooms and add to a potato/onion mixture. Add the jalapenos to another of the bowls of potato and onion. Divide the bacon between the remaining potato/onion bowl and the sweet potato bowl.

Divide the dough into 2 parts to make it easier to roll. Start with one half and roll it until it is about 1/8" thick. Use the top of a glass or a round cookie cutter to cut circles (about 2 1/2" in diameter) from the dough. Place a tablespoon of filling into the middle of each circle, and then fold the dough over and seal at the edges. Brushing a small amount of water on the dough edges before pinching together helps the perogie to stay closed.

Place the perogies in a large pot of boiling water, about 10 at a time, and boil for 4-5 minutes or until they float to the top. Drain the perogies and fry in a large skillet with olive oil until they are browned on both sides. Serve with sour cream and sliced green onions. Enjoy!!