LITTLE STUFFED POTATO DUMPLINGS PACKED WITH FLAVOUR
It’s been a long-anticipated recipe but here is my version of the traditional Polish perogies recipe.
Just last week I brought you the twice baked potato skins and this week another potato recipe just a bit different although you will love it.
Perogie is a traditional Polish food that has many names around the world.
In Polish, it is known as the Pierogi and you may run into other variations such as perogies, perogy, pierogi and so on.
Perogies 101
I was first introduced to the perogies delicacy by my friend Charlene who thought we could sell them like hot-cakes.
We had to organize a fundraiser for the pre-school and she thought it was a no-brainer to make Perogies.
The idea was to make a product that would easily make the school money but not cost us a fortune.
All of the profits from the fundraiser would go to the pre-school and since they are a fairly frugal meal to create they were ideal.
(They raised over $1,000)
I had to ask what a perogie was as it’s not something we eat in Scotland or the UK for that matter as much as we love our spuds.
When I saw how easy it was to make perogies and how delicious they tasted I was hooked and had to make them myself.
Perogie Making Takes Practice
It took a while to get the perogies pinching right and the correct ingredients for my hubby and kids to eat them but it wasn’t long before they were scoffing these down.
So with a big help from my friend Mellissa and her mother-in-law we decided that a huge batch or perogies were needed to fill our freezers.
We arrived early morning and as soon as we walked into her mother-in-law’s house you could smell the bacon bits and onions that had been cooked and mixed into the potatoes.
I had made my perogies mixture the night before and had added cheddar cheese.
It wasn’t long before we were up to our arms in perogies dough rolling and cutting getting ready to fill the perogies with our yummy fillings.
The men didn’t get off easy either without help, the more the merrier as they were sitting at the table filling and pinching perogies.
Even the two little girls were helping us and they did pretty well for being 4 1/2 years old!
Of course, we all had to taste the perogies so we had them for lunch along with some homemade sausage they had made.
Easy Perogie Stuffing Ideas
What is a perogie?
A perogie is simply a homemade hand-stuffed dumpling.
You can stuff a perogie pretty much with anything you want but traditionally you will find potatoes, sauerkraut, mushrooms, cheese, vegetables, meats and so on.
Sweet Perogie Ideas
Can you make sweet perogies?
You may also enjoy making sweet dumpling or dessert perogies stuffed with pie fillings such as
- Apple sauce or Apple pie filling
- Blueberry compote
- Marmalade Carrot Jam
- Raspberry compote
- Mulberry jam
To finish them top with whipped cream, honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, blueberry syrup or even ice-cream.
You can make perogies savory or sweet with any filling but if you do make the sweet perogies add a bit of flour to the filling as that will help control the liquid.
We did make sweet dessert perogies as well and filled them with wild Saskatoon berries which Mellisa had picked in the summer and had frozen.
We added some sugar, flour, and cinnamon into the berries. The smell in the house was lovely.
The results of stuffing perogies are endless and if you have a creative imagination in the kitchen you can even make your signature perogies that your friends will love.
How To Cook Perogies
Some of the common ways to enjoy perogies are boiled perogies, deep-fried pierogies, baked perogies, or fried perogies in a pan with butter, onions, bacon, mushrooms and topped with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese.
My mouth is drooling as I’m typing this. You can easily create your sauce for perogies and if you fancy using a pasta sauce you could do that as well.
I’ve also heard of people making a perogie casserole by layering the perogies in the casserole dish and adding layers of meats or vegetables even cheese in between.
We don’t use a perogie maker because our hands are the tools of the homemade perogies meal in our kitchen although I’m pretty sure you can find such a gadget on the market.
Cooking perogies is fairly simple to do and as easy as cooking pasta in water if you plan to boil them but you must make sure you don’t over-cook them either or they will become mushy.
You can also bake perogies in the oven and turn them over until they are golden brown.
However, you can deep-fry perogies as I mentioned above or pan-fry them as well.
We like to serve our perogies with bacon, sautéed onions, and cheddar cheese but the sky is the limit so don’t hold back.
How To Store Homemade Perogies
These homemade perogies are so easy to freeze which is why we made such a large batch.
They are simple to store as well if you want to make big batches as we did for an easy meal during the week or weekend.
What I do is boil the perogies and then toss the perogies in olive oil followed by placing them separately on a tray to cool then pop them into freezer bags.
Each bag of frozen perogies should be good up to 8 months in the freezer.
How To Make Homemade Perogies
- Filling
- 5 large potatoes
- ½ block cheese (700g block) grated
- 1 large onion
- Nob butter
- 1 teaspoon keens mustard
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 pack bacon chopped or 1 pack of bacon bits or bacon bits from butcher around 3 large handfuls (basically if you like bacon add as much as you want)
- Olive oil (you will need this for tossing the perogies in)
- Salt and pepper
- Perogie dough
- 9 cups plain flour
- 2 cups of milk
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- In a separate pan cook up the bacon bits or if you are adding the packed of bacon bits add this to the mashed potatoes and onions.
- Add the grated cheese and milk, salt n pepper, nutmeg, mustard, and mix into mash whilst it's still hot.
- Set aside and let cool down enough to be handled.
- You can make this the night before, cover and place in the fridge.
- Whilst this is cooling make the pierogi dough
- Mix the boiling water, milk, and oil in a bowl.
- Add salt and mix until dissolved.
- Gradually add the mixture to the flour and mix well.
- Let dough rest for ½ hour, then roll to make the perogies rounds.
- The dough will be sticky so add plenty of flour to your surface for rolling
- Cut dough into a manageable piece to roll then cover back up with either the upturned bowl or a damp cloth.
- Place cut perogies rounds onto parchment paper-covered baking tray and then cover with a towel until ready to use we had many hands so they didn't dry upon us too quickly.
- Now fill with filling, fold in half and pinch around the side.
- Once enough has been made place a large pot of boiling salted water onto boil. Place perogies into a pan and wait until they come to the surface.
- Take out and place it into a dish with olive oil and toss.
- You can eat these straight away or let them cool and bag for the freezer.
- When taking them out of the freezer do not defrost. Place oil in the pan and fry.
- Note: This recipe makes 24 dozen perogies.
If you are looking to create a meal from foods you have in your kitchen look no further than homemade Polish Pierogies.
There you have it a great way to fill up your freezer for a quick meal that can be served either by itself or as a side dish.
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LydiaF says
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My son could eat pierogies every day. I think I’ll make a batch with him to show him how to make them and we can tuck them in the freezer.
Nicola Don says
Ladies enjoy them as they dough is so light and easy to roll! These are parcels of heaven mmmm!
Christine Weadick says
Looks good!!!! My daughter loves perogies but she would skip the bacon as she doesn’t eat much meat..chicken is about it. But, as you say, you can fill with anything. In the past I’ve made the filling and stuffed it into cooked large pasta shells, then you just heat it up to serve. Stuffed pasta is a fave around here so we shall see what I could stuff these babies with that the boys would eat(just about anything!!!)… Might have to cut the dough recipe in half …or not..see how much room is in the freezer. I’m trying to get the levels down some so I can defrost both of mine. Worst case I pull out the picnic coolers for the overflow.
Mary says
Love perogies, this sounds wonderful. For years I bought huge bags of huge perogies from the Polish bakery,10 dozen at a time cost me $15.00..I stopped when the price went up to $24.00 and my daughter and kids moved on their own. I’m thinking this could be a great Saturday activity with my granddaughters.