A Day of Perogy-Making with The Gluten Free Vegan and GH Guest Author Leanne

A few weeks ago, I put a shout out for anyone interested in teaching me how to make authentic perogies from scratch. I had responses from two friends and fellow foodies. Megan (aka The Gluten Free Vegan) practically grew up in her friend’s Polish home and is well-versed in the art of homemade “pierogi”. Leanne (guest author for The Gourmet Housewife), has the last name Trofimenkoff, which as you can imagine, puts her into the front-running for Russian “varenyky”-making skills.

So we chatted, and set up a date, and I promised to provide the ingredients and the wine if they would provide the skills. Leanne got in contact with her Mom to get the secret family recipe, and the stage was set!

What were some of the highlights of the day?

Megan was a little confused at first as to whether we were making Chinese dumplings or perogies. After Leanne refreshed her on the technique, she tried to fix the first one she made, but it ended up looking more like a stegosaurus than a perogy! (The rest of hers were fabulous, it’s just fun to rib her a bit.)

P.S. Forgive the blurry photo – I was laughing so hard, the camera kept shaking:

We agreed after the fact that it would have been easier to make the mashed potato/filling ahead of time, as it added a few hours onto the total. But hey, it was a perfect excuse to have a glass of wine while we waited for it to cool.

Leanne demonstrated that you have to put a lot of “oomph” into cutting the dough.

We may or may not have cheated on one aspect of the perogy-making. That remains up for debate though. Some would call us genius. Where did we cheat? You’ll never know…we swore to take the secret to our graves.

We discovered that we pretty much make the best perogies ever:

But the best highlight of the day? Cooking with fellow foodies who love it as much as I do!

From left: Leanne, Megan, and myself.

Print Recipe

Perogies

Servings: 5 dozen

Author: The Gourmet Housewife

Ingredients

• Filling:
• 5 lbs potatoes peeled and cubed
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• milk
• salt & pepper
  
• Dough:
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 cups milk

Instructions

• Filling:
• Boil potatoes until fork tender. Drain.
• Sauté onions in butter until soft and translucent.
• Add butter and onions to potatoes along with milk, salt and pepper (and extra butter if needed!). Whip until smooth.
  
• Dough:
• Rub flour, salt and butter together until crumbly.
• Add eggs and enough milk to moisten the dough. The dough should resemble homemade pasta dough - soft, but slightly firm.
• Knead dough well for a few minutes. Place in a floured bowl, cover, and let rest for 30 minutes.
• On a floured surface, roll dough out and cut into circles.
• Fill circles with about a tablespoon of prepared filling and pinch. (Here's a great
• how-to video.)