Homemade Pierogi

Salmon pierogi up top, mushroom pierogi on the bottom

I have yet to find frozen pierogi without soy in them. By making them myself, i not only get to cut all the crap out, but i get to make some pretty unique fillings since pierogi ARE dumplings. The recipe below comes from a genuine Polish friend who taught me how to make them during a summer stay in the U.S.

Pierogi Dough

-2cups Flour (i haven't tried wheat or rice flour, but they would probably substitute fine)
-3Tbs Olive Oil
-1/2-3/4c Warm Water
-Dash of Salt

This is basically pie dough, which is crumbled and mixed on a countertop with your hands like any other pie dough. This can be difficult to get thin enough, so divide your dough in 2 and cover the extra to keep it from drying out while you roll it as thin as you can, around 1/16th of an inch is ideal. Use a glass or large round cookie cutter to cut your circles. I find a goblet to be slightly smaller than a pint but still a great size. Take the extra dough, add a little water, and re-roll it once. The dough gets tougher with each rolling so it is just not worth it a second time. You should get about 3 dozen circles from 1 batch of dough.

 Fill them, making sure all the edges are pinched well (forking the edge is a great failsafe) and boil them for about 10 minutes or 5 minutes past when they float. The thicker your dough was, the longer they will take to boil. Drain on a tea towel.

You can eat them right then, or freeze them for later. To freeze them, you want to lay them out on waxed paper on a sheet that fits in your freezer (a smaller sized cookie sheet fits in mine) and freeze them individually so they don't stick together. Once frozen, you can toss them all in a ziplock bag and store them. As Americans, we like to eat them fried up/sauteed in a pan with a little butter. Don't thaw them out, just throw them right into the skillet.

Fillings:
These are homemade so you can fill them with whatever you want!We fill them with:

*Crumbled Salmon sauteed with dill and cream
*Minced Wild Mushroom and tarragon
*Geleed Blueberries with honey (puree, reduce, and chill for a gelee like consistency)
*Spiced and Sweetened Pumpkin (tossed in cinnamon sugar after)
*Traditional Mashed Potatoes with Cheese and Onion

The runnier fillings can make the pierogi harder to stuff. I recommend chilling when you can, and pinching the outer corners of the pierogi prior to filling when you can't. When freezing multiple flavors, i like to do different edges on each type of pierogi so i can mix them together and still make sure everyone gets some of each.

Blueberry Pierogi with Cream