Thin velvety pastry filled with bacon, cheese, potato, then browned in butter. What is not to love? Once we decided to try making our own pierogies from scratch, we haven’t looked back. Upon mastering the dough, your options are endless on how you can stuff these dumplings. The trick to perfecting pierogies is ensuring the dough is rolled thinly and the filling is infused with enough flavour. Pierogies can easily be served as a savoury appetizer or main course. They also reheat well and are a great meal prep idea!
Below makes 32-34 Pierogies.
What you will need:
Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup water; plus additional ¼ cup
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 egg, beaten
Filling
- 2 medium potatoes; peeled and chopped into pieces
- 5 strips of bacon
- ½ cup shredded old cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tbsp. butter
- ¼ cup white onion; finely chopped
- 5 cracks of pepper
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Directions:
Prep Time: 40 minutes ◊ Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Cook bacon until crispy. Transfer to a cutting board and chop into small pieces. Set aside. In the same frying pan, add onions and simmer until golden brown. Add chopped bacon. Stir together, let simmer for a 1 minute then set aside.
- In a medium-sized pot, bring water to a boil. Boil potatoes until very soft and can easily be pierced with a fork. Drain.
- Add potatoes back into empty pot and begin to mash. Add milk, butter, cheddar, garlic powder and pepper. Mash until mixture is creamy and smooth. Using a spatula, mix in bacon and onions. Set aside. Note: Filling can be made the day before if desired.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, olive oil, ½ cup water, egg and salt. Mix together using a fork. Add remaining ¼ cup of water and continue to mix. Transfer to floured surface, and knead for 4-5 minutes until dough is smooth. Roll into an even ball.
- Place dough into a medium bowl and cover with damp cloth. Chill for 40-50 minutes.
- Transfer to a lightly floured surface and cut dough in half. Roll each half into a separate ball.
- Using a rolling-pin, carefully roll each half into a thin circle. Use small amounts of flour as you roll to keep dough from sticking. Tip: You will know when the pastry is thin enough because you will be able to see your fingers through the dough.
- Use a circular pastry cutter (approx. 4 inches in diameter), to cut pastry shells. You should be able to yield 16-18 circles per dough half or 32-36 total.
- In a large pot, bring water to boil and add a pinch of salt.
- Fill each pastry circle with a bit less than a tablespoon of potato filling. Tip: Ensure your hands are dry when filling pastry. Fold each circle in half, rolling slightly to ensure the potato fills the inside evenly, then press down firmly along edges. Make certain pastry is sealed thoroughly by squeezing fingers together along pastry edges and crimp firmly. Repeat for all pastry shells. Set aside prepared ones on a lightly floured surface. Tip: to make finishing decorative and look uniform, use your thumb and index finger to gently pinch your way along only the top layer of the pastries edge, creating a beautiful crimped look!
- In a large frying pan, on medium heat, melt butter.
- Add peirogies to boiling water in batches (7-8). Cook for 5-6 minutes. Remove and carefully place in heated frying pan. Cook for 2 minutes per side until golden brown. Transfer onto large serving platter. Note: You will need to add additional butter to the frying pan with each new batch.
- Serve with sour cream, chopped bacon and green onions!
The Rustic Kitchen 