The Great Pierogi Production!

If you have ever made pierogies then you know how much work then can be.  Well a few of the women in my family decided to get together and have a pierogi making day!  This way we all ended up with a good amount of pierogies in a short amount of time.  We did have the assistance of one man, Selby, who was the lucky person to watch Roman while we made out pierogies.  Roman managed to survive the day unscathed, too bad we can't say the same for Selby's beard....

Now the most important part of making pierogies is having a good recipe.  And where else to get a good pierogie recipe than from an old Ukrainian Baba.  Now if you are Ukrainian, or have ever tried to get a recipe from a Baba, then you know that those ladies can be sneaky!  Baba's are notorious for giving you their recipe but omitting an indigent or not giving you actual measurements so their food always tastes better than yours.  Fortunately Mom had a friend that was willing to share her delicious recipe and now I'm passing it on to you!

Pierogies (makes approx. 150 pierogies)
5 cups flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 cup boiling water
5 lbs potatoes, peeled
3 cups shredded cheese
1/4 cup butter, grated
Bacon, onion, or any other ingredients you want to add inside your pierogies

Using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix flour, milk, oil and boiling water until it forms a sticky dough.

Boil potatoes over high heat until tender, drain, and mash.  Add shredded cheese, grated butter, and any other additions to your pierogie filling, to the mashed potatoes.  *Secret Baba TIP - Cover the potatoes with a lid and allow the cheese and butter to melt into the pierogies.  Once it is completely melted mix up the potatoes.  This method gives you an even distribution of the butter and cheese into your filling!  Using a small ice cream scoop, or your hands, form the potatoes into individual balls 1 inch in diameter.  Set aside.  *Note - the size of the balls will depend on what size rounds you cut from the pierogie dough.  We used a regular drinking glass.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pierogie dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  Using a water glass, cut out rounds of the dough.  Continue rolling and cutting until all the dough is used.

Now the fun part, pinching pierogies!  Place a ball of potato into the centre of a round of dough.  Stretch the dough around the potato and pinch the edges together.  Voila, you have pierogies!  Now you just have 149 more to make!  Place the pierogies on parchment lined baking sheet and freeze, then transfer them into freezer bags.

Too cook the pierogies, boil them in water over high heat until the float to the top.  Top them with sour cream, onions, bacon, or even some mushroom soup.  You can also fry them in a pan after boiling to make the outside crispy.