Ingredients for filling:
8 Tbl Butter (plus more at the end)
2 large Onions
6 oz Cheese (your choice)
6 large Russet potatoes
Sauté butter with diced onions until soft and golden brown.
Peel, cut, boil potatoes. Drain and put back over heat to dry completely. Mash.
Place onions in sieve over bowl and push on them to remove excess butter. Save butter and add onions to potatoes. You will want to just add all the butter and onions to the potatoes. Don't do it. Too much liquid inside the dough will cause them to burst even more often then they will anyway. Restrain yourself. (There you go...put the butter away. Atta girl!)
Add grated cheese (Grandma used American slices; I prefer white cheddar. Almost any kind works).
Season with pepper (and salt if needed. This will depend on if you used salted butter and how salty the cheese is.
Cool filling before starting perogie. If it's hot or even too warm, it will soften the dough and make things mushy that you don't want mushy.
Dough:
1 1/3 C lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 C oil
4 C flour
Add flour until dough is stiff. Knead 10 minutes by hand. Let rest for 15 minutes.
************
Roll out dough fairly thin, around 1/8". Cover with cloth and let dough rest again or you will end up fighting with stretchy dough. Cut into circles (Grandma used a jelly glass, so did Mom, I use a 3" biscuit cutter).
Take a thick ball of filling, place on 1/2 of the circle, slightly stretch the top half over and pinch around the edges firmly. Set aside on cookie tray. Repeat ad nauseum. Don't stack or they will stick to each other.
To cook:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. You can add salt (or not) and a tablespoon of oil. Or not. This is another Grandma-ism...not exactly sure what it does, but I do it anyway. When water is simmering, gently drop about half a dozen perogies into the water. They are done when they bob up to the top and then cook for 1 minute longer. Using the stem of a wooden spoon, gently stir the water to ensure none of the perogie stick to the bottom. (my friend, who makes 300 a year using her mom's recipe, only cooks her's 2 minutes. Period.)
When they are done, lift them out and set them over a strainer to let all the water drain off. Place them back into the reserved butter and flip around to coat, so they don't stick to each other.
Some will burst. That is the nature of her recipe. Not sure if other recipes do, but Grandma's does.
If the water gets too cloudy, you'll need to start with fresh.
This will make anywhere from 4 to 6 dozen, depending on the size you start with and how many actually get through the boiling step. The first time I made them, I ended up with 2 dozen HUGE, very tasty perogies. It also took 3 hours.
Once cooked, they are ready to be eaten. They also microwave well. We prefer to fry them in EVEN MORE BUTTER until the dough gets golden and crispy and the insides can burn away the roof of your mouth. Completely cover with STILL MORE BUTTER and tons of sautéed onions. Try not to breath on anyone for quite a while.
(edited: I believe I just figured out why I take 20 mg of ZOCOR each night.)
8 Tbl Butter (plus more at the end)
2 large Onions
6 oz Cheese (your choice)
6 large Russet potatoes
Sauté butter with diced onions until soft and golden brown.
Peel, cut, boil potatoes. Drain and put back over heat to dry completely. Mash.
Place onions in sieve over bowl and push on them to remove excess butter. Save butter and add onions to potatoes. You will want to just add all the butter and onions to the potatoes. Don't do it. Too much liquid inside the dough will cause them to burst even more often then they will anyway. Restrain yourself. (There you go...put the butter away. Atta girl!)
Add grated cheese (Grandma used American slices; I prefer white cheddar. Almost any kind works).
Season with pepper (and salt if needed. This will depend on if you used salted butter and how salty the cheese is.
Cool filling before starting perogie. If it's hot or even too warm, it will soften the dough and make things mushy that you don't want mushy.
Dough:
1 1/3 C lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 C oil
4 C flour
Add flour until dough is stiff. Knead 10 minutes by hand. Let rest for 15 minutes.
************
Roll out dough fairly thin, around 1/8". Cover with cloth and let dough rest again or you will end up fighting with stretchy dough. Cut into circles (Grandma used a jelly glass, so did Mom, I use a 3" biscuit cutter).
Take a thick ball of filling, place on 1/2 of the circle, slightly stretch the top half over and pinch around the edges firmly. Set aside on cookie tray. Repeat ad nauseum. Don't stack or they will stick to each other.
To cook:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. You can add salt (or not) and a tablespoon of oil. Or not. This is another Grandma-ism...not exactly sure what it does, but I do it anyway. When water is simmering, gently drop about half a dozen perogies into the water. They are done when they bob up to the top and then cook for 1 minute longer. Using the stem of a wooden spoon, gently stir the water to ensure none of the perogie stick to the bottom. (my friend, who makes 300 a year using her mom's recipe, only cooks her's 2 minutes. Period.)
When they are done, lift them out and set them over a strainer to let all the water drain off. Place them back into the reserved butter and flip around to coat, so they don't stick to each other.
Some will burst. That is the nature of her recipe. Not sure if other recipes do, but Grandma's does.
If the water gets too cloudy, you'll need to start with fresh.
This will make anywhere from 4 to 6 dozen, depending on the size you start with and how many actually get through the boiling step. The first time I made them, I ended up with 2 dozen HUGE, very tasty perogies. It also took 3 hours.
Once cooked, they are ready to be eaten. They also microwave well. We prefer to fry them in EVEN MORE BUTTER until the dough gets golden and crispy and the insides can burn away the roof of your mouth. Completely cover with STILL MORE BUTTER and tons of sautéed onions. Try not to breath on anyone for quite a while.
(edited: I believe I just figured out why I take 20 mg of ZOCOR each night.)
