Recipe from Julia Hlinka
Adapted by Francis Lam
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- 4(150)
- Notes
- Read community notes
With pliant skins surrounding a rich mash of potatoes and cheese, Julia Hlinka’s pierogies are the epitome of satisfying northern Slovakian farm food. Instead of the traditional sheep's cheese, she uses American cheese — a reminder of her move to the United States in the 60s — which melts into the potatoes. She tops the pierogies with bacon as a treat. Alternatively, you can also serve them dressed with a little melted butter and chopped chives. —Francis Lam
Featured in: How to Master Pierogies
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Ingredients
Yield:Serves 4-6 (about 60 pierogies)
- ½pound bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces (see note)
- 2pounds red or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks, rinsed
- Table salt
- 4slices American cheese
- 1large egg
- 1cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
- 3¼cups flour, plus more for board
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
607 calories; 22 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 82 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 20 grams protein; 755 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Place the bacon in a small saucepan over medium-low heat to render slowly, stirring occasionally. When the bacon is cooked and browned but not yet crisp, turn off the heat; let the bacon sit in its fat.
Step
2
Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, and add cold water to cover and 1 tablespoon salt. Bring them to boil over high heat, then lower heat to a simmer for 25 minutes, or until the potatoes break apart easily but are not falling apart. Drain the potatoes, and place them back in the pot. Add the cheese, and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Taste, and season with salt if necessary.
Step
3
While the potatoes cook, beat the egg and 1½ tablespoons salt together with a fork in a large mixing bowl. Let rest for a few minutes, then beat in the milk. Add the flour in thirds, stirring well, until you have a sticky, shaggy dough.
Step
4
Flour your board with ½ cup flour, spread it in an 18-inch circle and turn the dough out into the flour. Lightly knead the dough, rolling it in flour as necessary, until it is mostly smooth (a little lumpiness is O.K.) and well floured, about 5 minutes. Pat it into a 1-inch-thick disc, cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
Step
5
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out ⅛-inch-thick. (If you like a more delicate wrapper, roll it a little thinner.) Punch out wrappers with a 2½-inch-round cookie cutter.
Step
6
Hold a wrapper in one hand, and place 1 to 1¼ tablespoons potato filling in it, pressing on the filling slightly to spread it nearly to the edge of the wrapper. Bring the edges of the wrapper up, as if folding a taco, and pinch one end closed. Stabilize the pierogi on the outstretched fingers of one hand. Use your other hand to pinch around the pierogi’s top to seal the dumpling into a half moon, pinching the wrapper snugly against the filling to prevent any air pockets from forming. Use the thumb of the stabilizing hand to block the filling from squishing out as you pinch. (If you have air pockets, they may cause the pierogi to explode while boiling.) Place finished pierogies on a lightly floured surface. Any leftover dough may be reserved for another use in the refrigerator, or cut and boiled as rustic noodles.
Step
7
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Gently reheat the bacon. Carefully add the pierogies to the water, and cook until they all float, then cook 1 minute more. Drain, and serve garnished with bacon and slicked with bacon fat.
Tip
- If you prefer, dress the pierogies with melted butter and chopped chives to taste instead.
Ratings
4
out of 5
150
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Cooking Notes
Green Eagle
My Ruthenian family's recipe calls for sharp cheddar in the potato filling; much less salt in the dough;and sour cream and 'potato water' instead of the milk. The thinly-rolled dough is cut into squares, resulting in triangular pirohi. And they wouldn't be worth eating without frying! Thinly sliced onions are browned first in butter/margarine and oil, then the pirohi are fried in that pan till crisp, and served with the caramelized onions and lashings of sour cream.
Bonnie
A trick to make filling and pinching go faster is to roll the potato and cheese filling into balls before making the dough. Then when the dough has been rolled and cut, pick up a piece of dough, place a potato ball in the middle, pinch the edges together while slightly flattening the filling. This way it's just your hands and dough with no utensils or measuring to slow you down.
Al
We generally preferred onions fried to the point where they are beginning to turn brown and sweet rather than bacon as a garnish. The flavor of bacon is too strong compared to that of the pirogues.
Delee
Coming from a very strict Catholic family, these would have been made without the bacon and bacon fat on Fridays. Fear not, there's always butter, and lots of it. My grandmother would have put a fistful of butter into the potatoes, and after the pierogi were boiled, they would go into a frying pan and get a light frying in more butter. Kind of like a Polish pot-sticker. There's supposed to be so much butter that they kind of slide down without a whole lot of chewing.
Dan L
The sheep's cheese in genuine Slovak pierogis (actually called pirohy--pierogi is Polish) is called bryndza. European markets throughout the United States often carry it. If you search "order bryndza online" you can find a number of stores that will ship it to you.
Barbara Reeves
My Babcia's pierogi were lighter than air. We use 3 eggs for that amount of flour. Our potato filling is seasoned with salt, pepper and onions cooked in butter. Then American Cheese. We also make cabbage filled and prune filled pierogi.
Claudia
My grandparents made a version from the Ukraine called Vareniki.
The potato filling was mashed with onions browned in fat back. The onions were dark brown so NOT caramelized. The fat back is is milder than bacon. The Vareniki's are served with the same onion and fat back mixture on top. Plus a good dollop of sour cream. The cheese Vareniki's were made witth farmers cheese. I always preferred the potato to the cheese myself, but you got both on your plate at grandma's house!
Bruce
Make it simple. Use won ton skins (round or square with corners cut off.) With a won ton press, just put some filling in, wet the edges and press down. Boiled, baked or fried!
Easy, light and delicious.
BotanyBoy
Afghans make dumplings too, and back when it was reasonably safe to go to Kabul markets, one could buy dumpling forms like metal doilies at metal workers' shops. The Russians make similar ones for pelmeni. I have a selection of forms in different patterns on my kitchen wall. Put one layer of dough loosely on the form. Press filling into the pockets and top with a second layer of dough. Roll top to crimp and trim and pop the dumplings out. Helpful tools for the fumble fingered.
dee
I have made these with GF flour in the past. It worked!
Olivia
Dough was much too salty--next time, I will significantly reduce salt, but otherwise, it's a keeper!
Demi Morgan
It doesn't say how much salt to use, how much did you use?
PLynneH
My grandmother's Polish recipe added sauted onions and dry curd cottage cheese to the mashed potato filling. Divine! Oh, and lots of freshly ground pepper.
Sharon Knettell
I am sorry, but only onions sauteed to a brown caramelized melt will do- and sharp cheddar!
No sour cream and certainly not fried- boiled!
Sauerkraut makes a great filling too. My mother stuffed us full of these when we were kids. OMG!
Bruce
Make it simple. Use won ton skins (round or square with corners cut off.) With a won ton press, just put some filling in, wet the edges and press down. Boiled, baked or fried!
Easy, light and delicious.
BotanyBoy
Afghans make dumplings too, and back when it was reasonably safe to go to Kabul markets, one could buy dumpling forms like metal doilies at metal workers' shops. The Russians make similar ones for pelmeni. I have a selection of forms in different patterns on my kitchen wall. Put one layer of dough loosely on the form. Press filling into the pockets and top with a second layer of dough. Roll top to crimp and trim and pop the dumplings out. Helpful tools for the fumble fingered.
Barbara Reeves
My Babcia's pierogi were lighter than air. We use 3 eggs for that amount of flour. Our potato filling is seasoned with salt, pepper and onions cooked in butter. Then American Cheese. We also make cabbage filled and prune filled pierogi.
patti@vallaire.com
We had those fillings as well as mushroom.
Laura Johnson
I was first introduced to pierogis back in 1960 by a Ukrainian family, who called them "perohay". I also met ooshki, which I was told meant, "little ears", and was made much the same way, but the filling was mushrooms and onions rather than potato.
I am now having to cook for a man who has to eat very low sodium. That's *really* hard. And now I can make perohay without adding salt, and using a kind of very low sodium swiss cheese. And I can make ooshki as well!
Claudia
My grandparents made a version from the Ukraine called Vareniki.
The potato filling was mashed with onions browned in fat back. The onions were dark brown so NOT caramelized. The fat back is is milder than bacon. The Vareniki's are served with the same onion and fat back mixture on top. Plus a good dollop of sour cream. The cheese Vareniki's were made witth farmers cheese. I always preferred the potato to the cheese myself, but you got both on your plate at grandma's house!
Carol
Aaah, memories! Yes, Dan, I agree with you...pierohy and bryndza cheese! At a family reunion, my Mom and aunts gathered all of us younger kids around and taught us all how to make them...we helped, and made over 600 pierohies, feeding the whole reunion or 70 relatives! I will never forget that reunion.. Mom used clarified butter with the bacon bits. Sometime the pierohy was filled with saurkraut...just to counter the heaviness of this wonderful meal!
Bonnie
A trick to make filling and pinching go faster is to roll the potato and cheese filling into balls before making the dough. Then when the dough has been rolled and cut, pick up a piece of dough, place a potato ball in the middle, pinch the edges together while slightly flattening the filling. This way it's just your hands and dough with no utensils or measuring to slow you down.
Diana GJ
The recipe, minus the bacon, is similar to the varenikes that my Jewish-Argentine grandmothers, Jewish gauchos from Bessarabia, made for family gatherings. The varenikes were filled with a mixture of farmers cheese, green onion and egg, and eaten with creme fraiche. The dough is very similar and truly delicious and a fond memory. It's always been a mystery for me that varenikes, such a staple of Argentine Jewish food,never became a part of the Jewish American cooking traditions.
Green Eagle
My Ruthenian family's recipe calls for sharp cheddar in the potato filling; much less salt in the dough;and sour cream and 'potato water' instead of the milk. The thinly-rolled dough is cut into squares, resulting in triangular pirohi. And they wouldn't be worth eating without frying! Thinly sliced onions are browned first in butter/margarine and oil, then the pirohi are fried in that pan till crisp, and served with the caramelized onions and lashings of sour cream.
rayy
My mom's (Slovak) recipe called for "fairly hot water", but I like the idea of using the potato water!
Al
We generally preferred onions fried to the point where they are beginning to turn brown and sweet rather than bacon as a garnish. The flavor of bacon is too strong compared to that of the pirogues.
Dan L
The sheep's cheese in genuine Slovak pierogis (actually called pirohy--pierogi is Polish) is called bryndza. European markets throughout the United States often carry it. If you search "order bryndza online" you can find a number of stores that will ship it to you.
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