Any tricks to making pelmeni or pierogi ?

hyperbowler · January 3, 2016, 1:35pm

Here’s the recipe I use. Good luck!

Serves 4 people, and will work if you double the recipe.

Mrs. Janiec’s Pierogi:

To make dough: Place flour in a large bowl and thoroughly mix in salt. In a measuring cup, combine the eggs and 1/2 cup of cold water, and beat well with a fork. Add those ingredients to flour and mix with your hands until blended.

Add enough warm water to hydrate the dough, but you probably won’t use it all. To do this, add the warm water a few tablespoons at a time until all of the loose flour gets incorporated. It will transform from a shaggy dough, with lots of unincorporated flour, to a solid mass. When you are 95% close to a wet dough (a bit dryer than cookie dough, definitely not to the point of oatmeal), add the butter
and knead on a lightly floured surface until there are no lumps and it feels very smooth.

This should take up to 15 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and let set for 1-3 hours, or let sit in the refrigerator no longer than 48 hours.

To assemble:

Option 1 (Chinese style): grab a ~100g hunk of dough, re-wrap the remainder, and cut it into several 10 gram nuggets. Keeping covered balls you’re not working with, on a lightly floured surface, flatten each ball with your fist, flip over, and roll with a wooden dowel into 2 1/2” circles.
Option 2 (more traditional): Divide the dough into thirds and roll out each on a lightly floured surface until the dough is approximately 1/8 inch
thick. With a cup or glass, cut as many circles as possible out of the dough, but do not lift them off the work surface. Remove
the excess dough from the work surface, and roll the circles until they become completely flattened.

Carefully lift each circle of dough from the table (a spatula helps) and put between 1 tsp. and 1 tbs. of
filling in its center.

For each circle, fold dough over to form a half-moon shape, and pinch edges closed, making sure there are no air pockets. Repeat for the remaining dough.

To cook: Place no more than 1/3 of the pierogis at a time in lightly boiling salted water for 5-10 minutes, and don’t let the boiling get too rough or it’ll destroy the pierogies. Drain and serve immediately or fry in butter.

Drain in colander and rinse with cold water if you don’t serve immediately.

Alternatively to fry: Prepare 1 recipe of the saurkraut pierogie filling. Set aside and in the same pan, melt a stick of butter. Add
the pierogies and the filling to the pan and fry until the pierogies become brown.

Fillings: Each of these fillings corresponds to the above recipe for dough.

Cheese Filling:
Ingredients:
8 oz. farmer cheese(a soft, NOT a hard cheese) or dry-curd cottage cheese (if unsalted add 1 tsp. salt)
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
2 tbs. flour

Mash together all of the ingredients until well mixed.

Saurkraut Filling:
Ingredients:
1 large can (~28 oz.) sauerkraut, drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 stick butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion until it is translucent and then add the sauerkraut, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes and let it cool before using. For best results, refrigerate a few hours.