Pierogy Dough
Why I Love This Recipe
My mother married twice. The second husband was a Ukrainian and she made these often. This looks complicated but it is not. Just time consumming.
Ingredients You'll Need
3 cups pre-sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
1 1/4 cups potato water (room temperature)
Directions
Pour flour and salt into a large bowl and stir with a spoon to combine thoroughly.
Cut cold margarine into flour with your hands until mixture resembles oatmeal.
Gently beat 1 egg in a separate small bowl.
Add the sour cream into the beaten egg mixture, then add the reserved room temperature potato water and whisk to combine thoroughly.
Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture.
With your hands, combine the wet and dry mixtures and form into dough.
Continue to combine until it pulls together to form dough. Knead in the bowl until it is soft and not sticky. It should easily come off of your hands as you knead it.
Cover dough with cling wrap or a damp cloth and let rest for 2 hours at room temperature.
When you are ready to fill pierogies, divide dough into 3 pieces and cover 2 while you roll out one piece of dough.
Roll dough to a 1?4" thickness - you want it to be thin, but not too thin (you don't want holes in the dough).
Cut 3" rounds with a cookie cutter or a glass with a sharp rim. I cut squares of about 2 inches by 2 inches.
Press a round of dough in your hand and fill with 1 teaspoon of filling.
Fold round in half and neatly tuck filling inside with your index finger, away from the edges. If there is any filling on the seams it may unseal while boiling.
Starting from the bottom, pinch the edges closed to seal the pierogy closed. Also ensure there are no air pockets inside the pierogies - they may unseal as a result. Work your way along the edge pinching it closed and pulling the edges outward by gently sweeping the dough with your thumb to form a flat seam.
Fill a saucepan with water and salt and bring to a boil. Cook each different flavour of pierogies in separate batches - do not cook all of them together at the same time.
Drop one type of pierogies into boiling water. They will drop to the bottom of the pot while they cook. Do not crowd the pot by cooking too many at the same time.
Within a few minutes the pierogies will rise to the top of the water and float. At this point, they will be finished.
Carefully remove the pierogies from hot water with a slotted spoon and drain in a colander.
Options: Sauté finely chopped onions with butter and drizzle onto boiled pierogies or pan fry the boiled pierogies in the onions and butter until they are browned and crisp. If you are making fruit-filled pierogies, simply toss with a dollop of butter so that they won't stick together.
Serve pierogies with sour cream if desired.
