Daring Cooks Challenge: Pierogies

The August 2010 Daring Cooks‟ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n‟ Bites and Anula of Anula‟s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogie from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

My hubby really likes pierogies. When we first moved in together, he would buy the frozen Mrs. T's pierogies and make us the full box for dinner. Sometimes with butter, sometimes plain. I, on the other hand, wouldn't say that pierogies are my favorite.

This challenge snuck up on me - we've been having a fun-filled and packed summer and pierogies weren't on my mind.  So tonight I stopped by the store to pick up the ingredients - some potatoes and farmer's cheese for the filling. The dough wasn't too challenging to make - but I had some trouble rolling it out thin enough. I ended up with about five times more filling than I did pierogie shapes. Guess I'll be making more tomorrow! Or finding some way to use up a giant bowl of mashed potatoes and farmers cheese.

For equipment I used a trusty pint glass to cut out the shapes and a fork for crimping. I boiled the pierogies in salted water and after about five minutes they floated to the top. I served them with generous drizzle of olive oil and some fresh basil from my garden. The hubby really enjoyed them. I thought they tasted like the ones in the box, which I guess you could call success! If I made them again I think I would try a sweet & sour cabbage filling or a dessert pierogie.

I used the recipes provided for Russian Pierogies. I used the filling with potatoes and farmers cheese.