Blueberry Pierogi
Here I am again sharing one of my grandmother, Zofia’s recipes. It struck me to share this one with you all when I was scrolling through my Facebook memories. I saw a post that I made back when I was in college (many moons ago) and chronicled a time when my grandma made me some blueberry pierogi to go in my lunch at school. I was so touched by this sweetness at the time that I took to Facebook to share. Seeing that post brought back so many good memories for me, and it got me to thinking that most people probably have never had a sweet pierogi before. Most people in the Midwest, Polish capital of the United States, have probably had a potato or cheese pierogi before, but I don’t know too many people who talk about the sweet variety of this Polish dish. However, when you try them, you won’t forget them. They are a perfect balance of sweet and tart that comes with fresh fruit, and they’re wrapped up in a nice tidy package that makes enjoying them all the more pleasant.
You start off with the dough. It is very similar to a pasta dough, except with the addition of sour cream. I have been using non-fat Greek yogurt in the place of sour cream for some time so you can use that as a substitute as well if you wish. The water measurement in this recipe is an estimate. Whenever you’re working with flour and trying to build gluten, the conditions of the day can have a big effect on how much water you have. So for this recipe, your guiding post is that you should not need more than a cup of water. I would start with half of that however, and add until there are no more dry bits as you work the dough.
Kneading this dough is essential. Just like pasta dough, pierogi dough needs to be kneaded for a decent amount of time to build up enough gluten to hold the dough together. Depending on your kneading technique, this could take anywhere from 2-4 minutes. You’re looking for the dough ball to lose it’s shagginess and be mostly smooth. You also need the dough to bounce right back when you press on it. Then you’ll know that the dough is ready.
Often with pasta recipes, you’re told to let the dough rest for at least a half hour before you try to roll it out. This allows the gluten to relax. My grandmother, however, doesn’t wait, and I am generally an impatient person so I don’t either. I start rolling half the dough ball at a time. You want to get the dough to be pretty thin, absolutely no thicker than an 8th of an inch. Then you can start punching out your dough circles. You’re going for a 3 inch diameter. I use a biscuit cutter for this, but if you have a cup with a 3 inch diameter, use that instead.
When forming the pierogis you want to fill them with some fresh blueberries topped with a little sugar. How much blueberry you put in is up to you. You want them to be stuffed pretty full. It’s hard to measure blueberries in tablespoons, but if I had to guess, I’d say about 2 tablespoons is what you’re aiming for. You should just sprinkle on some sugar, but if you insist on measuring, it’s about 1/4 teaspoon. Then it’s time to fold up into a pierogi shape. You want to go and pinch the center together first, and then pinch down the sides. If you find that your dough isn’t sticking, don’t use water to try to make it stick. Put a little flour on your fingers and pinch the dough together using those floured fingers. This should solve your problem. You want to pinch the edges pretty thinly to ensure a good seal. You can also seal with a fork, or by crimping the edges. However, that takes even more time, and as I’ve mentioned, I’m impatient.
Cooking these tasty treats is simple. You just put them in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain them and put them on a sheet pan to cool. I also spray them with some cooking spray to keep them from sticking together. If these were savory pierogi, you could fry them or dress them in butter. However, we like to eat the sweet one’s chilled.
People will often eat pierogi with sour cream. In my family, for the sweet pierogi, we use a sweetened sour cream. This is, again, a place where I substitute non-fat Greek yogurt. Normally, I would just add sugar until I got the right taste, but I did take the liberty of measuring for you all in my recipe.
I hope that you enjoy these delicious treats as much as my family does, and I hope that this recipe got you to try something new! Remember, you don’t have to be a professional chef to make magic in the kitchen.
Joe the Blue Wizard
Blueberry Pierogi
Ingredients
- 5 cups All-Purpose Flour, Plus more for dusting
- 2 large Eggs
- 1/4 cup Sour Cream (or Non-Fat Greek Yogurt)
- 2 tsp. Kosher Salt
- 1 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Cool Water
- About 3 cups Fresh Blueberries
- Granulated Sugar for Sprinkling
- 2 cups Sour Cream (or Non-Fat Greek Yogurt)
- 6 tbsp. Granulated Sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, place the flour and make a well in the center.
- Add eggs, sour cream, salt and oil to the well, and whisk with a fork to combine.
- Add about half the water to the well and whisk again.
- Begin to start pulling in some of the flour to the mixture as you whisk until the mixture is too thick to work with the fork.
- Switch to mixing and kneading with your hands. Add additional water until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the dough ball. You may not use all the water.
- Once you have a single mass of dough, place on a lightly floured work surface and knead for 2-4 minutes until the dough is smooth and springs right back when poked with a finger.
- Cut dough ball in half and form each half into a disk.
- Place one disc under a tea towel to prevent it from drying out while you work with the other dough disc.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is very thin (no thicker than 1/8th inch)
- Using a 3-in. diameter cutter, cut out rounds of dough to turn into pierogi. Remove the excess dough to re-roll later.
- Stretch out the rounds of dough to be slightly thinner than before.
- To the middle of each round, add in about 2 tbsp. or slightly more of fresh blueberries.
- Sprinkle the blueberries with about a 1/4 tsp of sugar per pierogi.
- Grab two opposite sides of the dough round and pinch them together over the blueberries.
- Pinch the remaining unsealed edges together around the blueberries. If you are having trouble getting the edges to stick together, put some flour on your pinching fingers and pinch using the floured fingers until the dough is sealed.
- Place finished pierogi on a sheet pan dusted with flour.
- Repeat until all the dough has been rolled and used up.
- Cook sealed pierogi in batches in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes a batch.
- Remove to a sheet pan to cool. Spray with non-stick cooking spray to keep the pierogi from sticking to each other.
- Once all pierogi are cooked, place the cooling pan in the refrigerator to chill the pierogi.
- In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream and sugar.
- Serve with the chilled pierogi.
- Enjoy!
