Aunt Norma Sawatski’s Pierogi Recipe

Aunt Norma Sawatski’s Pierogi Recipe

Cheese mixture:

     1/2 # dry cottage cheese (may be called dry farmer’s cheese-looks like cottage cheese with no liquid. I have also tried a smooth farmer’s cheese-didn’t work as well)

     Finely chopped white onion-if you use the frozen chopped onions, chop, thaw  and drain first

     Finely chopped green pepper-if you use the frozen chopped pepper, chop, thaw and drain first

     1 large egg

     Salt and pepper

Dough mixture:

     3 cups flour (Pillsbury makes a softer dough, Gold Medal a firmer dough)

     1 ½  teas salt

     ¼ pound butter

     About ¾ cup water

     Mix with hand mixer. Do not knead dough. Just make a ball and when it all sticks together, roll it out.

Dough and cheese mixtures can be made the night before and refrigerated. Wrap dough in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

I prefer not to make the dough the night before. It doesn’t dry out but gets too hard.

Boil a large pan of water.

Roll out dough on a floured surface. Roll it to a little less than ¼ inch. Cut in about 4 ½ inch circle. Lay in a pierogi maker. These can be bought on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Zoie-Chloe-3-Piece-Dough-Press/dp/B015XMKQQ2/ref=sr_1_40_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1527896271&sr=8-40-spons&keywords=pierogi+maker&psc=1

Fill with a small teaspoon of cheese mixture. Dip fingers in water and dampen edge of pierogi. Close pierogi maker firmly and peel off dough outside the maker. This left over dough can be rerolled but no more than 3 times-it gets rather rubbery! Drop pierogi in boiling water. Pierogi is done when it becomes slightly golden and floats.

I lay them on a cookie sheet to cool. When cool, I wrap them individually in plastic wrap and put them in Ziploc baggies and freeze.

Fry them frozen in butter. The Sawatski’s like them rather crispy and use a Cambell’s tomato soup gravy on them. (Can of soup and ½ to 2/3 cup milk.)

They can also be filled with a ground beef mixture, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, or pie filling.

Just for reference:      The following recipe makes about 50.

3 x dough

1 20 oz dry cottage cheese (Cheese comes in 20 oz packages where I shop)

½ chopped green pepper

1 12 oz bag frozen onion-chopped

2 eggs in cheese

Salt and pepper