Last week, I made my very own perogies (Polish potato dumplings) from scratch! I felt quite proud of myself because they turned out so well, considering it was my first attempt. Our family loves perogies. In the past, we've bought frozen perogies from the grocery store, purchased homemade ones (frozen and cooked) from Polish farmer's market vendors, and even ordered them at restaurants. I had been wanting to make them myself for quite some time and I finally got around to it...and I'm so glad I did! It took quite some time to prepare the perogies from start to finish, but the end result was worth the extra time and effort.
The recipe I used was one I had clipped out from last year's April edition of Chatelaine magazine. Several people asked me for the recipe when I posted a picture of the perogies on my Instagram account, so I am going to share the recipe here exactly as found in the magazine.
* The red text are my additions/revisions *
Loaded Polish Potato Perogies
Makes 65 perogies ( I made the entire batch, boiled half and froze the uncooked half for another time)
Preparation time - 1 hour 30 minutes (It probably took me double that time to prepare the entire batch)
Ingredients
Dough
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (only 4 cups for the dough)
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream (only 1 cup for the dough)
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, cubed
Filling
3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered (750 g) (I used the potatoes I had on hand)
3 strips of bacon, chopped
4 green onions, chopped ( I omitted the bacon and onions in the filling and topped the perogies with those ingredients instead)
1 1/2 cups grated old cheddar (I used 2 cups for a stronger cheddar taste)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
Directions
Stir 4 cups flour with salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs with 1 cup of sour cream in a medium bowl, then stir into flour mixture along with butter until dough comes together. Knead dough on a lightly floured counter, dusting with more flour, until it is smooth and not sticky.
Divide dough into 2 portions, pat into 2 discs and wrap each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days)
Boil potatoes in a large pot of water until soft, about 20 min.
Omit this next step if you are not including bacon in the filling
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp, 3 to 5 min. Drain on paper-towel-lined plate. Do not clean pan. Reserve 1/4 cup green onions for garnish. Add remaining green onions to bacon fat. Cook until soft. 1 to 2 min. Transfer to plate with bacon.
Drain cooked potatoes, then return to the pot. Mash potatoes with bacon, cooked onions, cheese, salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Dust counter with remaining cup flour. Roll out 1 disc of dough until 1/8 in. thick. Cut out 2 1/2 inch wide circles with a cookie cutter (or drinking glass). Keep dough covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Scoop a heaping teaspoon of filling onto each round and fold the dough over, forming a half moon. Pinch edges tightly to seal. If dough won't seal, dab edges with water. (I dabbed the edges of all the perogies with water just to be safe). Gather scraps of dough, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat with remaining disc of dough. Gather up scraps, combine with dough from refrigerator, re-roll and cut out more circles.
Fill same large pot with water and bring to a boil. Slip about 12 perogies into boiling water and cook 5 to 6 minutes. Once perogies float to the top, remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a platter. Repeat with remaining perogies.
Pat dry and serve topped with remaining 1/2 cup sour cream and reserved green onions. Or melt butter in a frying pan and fry perogies in batches, adding more butter if needed, until crispy, 2 min per side. Top with sour cream and green onions.
Make ahead tip: Freeze uncooked perogies in a single layer on a baking sheet. Store in freezer bags up to 2 weeks. Cook from frozen as per directions above, adding 2 minutes to cooking time.
To garnish the perogies, I sauteed sliced onions and bacon; added a dollop of sour cream and sprinkled them with chopped green onion. Mmm! They were so delicious!