07.29.12_Homemade Perogies

I had two plans for the day on Sunday: 1) Stay home and watch the Olympics all day and 2) Make homemade perogies. I randomly had a craving for them last week and decided to find a recipe for them. Since I was making everything from scratch I thought it would make a great weekend activity so I would have plenty of time to make them.

I started by whisking together flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, I combined all the wet ingredients (eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, butter and oil). Next, the wet and dry ingredients were mixed together until all the flour had been incorporated. I then set the dough aside, covered with a towel.

As the dough sat, I brought a large pot of water to a boil before dropping in 8 peeled and dice potatoes. Once the potatoes were tender (about 15 minutes) I drained them, then Phillip mashed the potatoes with 1 cup of cheddar cheese and 2 TBSP of Cheez Wiz. I'm not sure why the Cheez Wiz was necessary. If I were to make these again I would just up the amount of real cheese and omit the processed.


Next came assembling the perogies. I cut the dough in half and rolled it out on the counter which I had lightly floured until it was about 1/8-1/4" thick. I do not own cookie cutters so I used a mason jar lid to cut out the circles of dough. I scooped about a TBSP or so of the potato mixture onto each dough circle then used a basting brush to rim each circle with water. To form the perogies, I folded the dough in half, then pinched the edges closed with my fingers. Finally I reformed the perogies into a nice crescent moon shape and smoothed out the edges that I had pinched shut. I placed the perogies onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper before popping them into the freezer for a few hours.



Once we were ready to eat that night, I brought a large pot of water to a boil before dropping in 10 of the perogies. The perogies cooked for about 6-8 minutes before the floated to the top of the water which is how you know they are ready. To get some extra color and crunch, I heated a combination of oil and butter in a large skillet. After the perogies were done cooking in the boiling water, I transferred them to the skillet and cooked them for a few minutes on each side until they were nice and golden.  Then it was time to eat! I served the perogies with the Lightlife's Italian-Style sausages with caramelized onions we had tried when we first started the blog. The perogies were incredibly delicious and much better than any frozen brand I have tried. They took some effort but were well worth it. The recipe made about 40 perogies (half of them are in our freezer for another time) and would be great with any kind of filling you want! Our friend Meghan came over for dinner and even though she's not a vegetarian really enjoyed the Lightlife sausages too!