The older I get, the more family and traditions mean to me. One of my favorite memories growing up was watching my grandma make Polish Pierogi dumplings for important occasions. She was a tiny redhead with a huge personality.
So it makes me happy to make Pierogis for my kids and tell them about their great-grandma. And I hope they pass the tradition down to their kids someday.
I posted this recipe a looooooooong time ago. And since then, I’ve learned a few things — like the recipe is sized to make enough filling for about 1,000 people, and the dough is enough for about one person. So I’ve made a few adjustments in the new recipe — and here it is!
Grandma’s Potato Pierogis
Ingredients
- 5 medium-large potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 6 eggs
- 6 tablespoons cream cheese
- 6 teaspoons milk
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 8 ounce container cottage cheese
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter
- oil for frying
- sliced green onions
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.
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Meanwhile, prepare dough by combining 1 egg, 1 tablespoon cream cheese, 1 teaspoon milk and 1/2 cup flour. Once all the flour has been worked in, add another 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon cream cheese and 1 teaspoon milk. When the dough is well blended, add 1 egg, 1 tablespoon cream cheese and another 1/2 cup flour; mix well. Continue to add the remaining eggs, cream cheese, milk and flour, in the same measurements as before until well-blended, If dough is too dry, add a little more milk; if too wet, add a little more flour.
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On a well floured surface, roll out about 1/4 of the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using a glass, muffin cutter, or any rounded item, cut out circles of dough about 2.5-3" across. Flour both sides of the circle and set aside in a single layer on wax paper. Repeat process with remaining dough.
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Mash the potatoes with the cottage cheese, salt and butter. Place a spoonful of the filling slightly below the center of a circle of dough. Fold the dough over and seal edges with fingertips. Use enough filling so that you have to stretch the dough over it, but not so much that it squeezes out when sealed.
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in pierogis, a few at a time. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until they float to the top; drain.
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Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry boiled pierogis in butter and onions until crispy.
Do you have a special, traditional recipe you like to make for special occasions? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear about YOUR traditions!
Have a Wonderful Day!!
xoxo
Grandma’s Potato Pierogis
Recipe Type: Savory
Cuisine: Grandma’s Polish Pierogis
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
So it makes me happy to make Pierogis for my kids and tell them about their great-grandma. And I hope they pass the tradition down to their kids someday.
Ingredients
- 5 (medium-large) potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 6 eggs
- 6 tablespoons cream cheese
- 6 teaspoons milk
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 (8 ounce) container cottage cheese
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter
- oil for frying
- sliced green onions
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.
- Meanwhile, prepare dough by combining 1 egg, 1 tablespoon cream cheese, 1 teaspoon milk and 1/2 cup flour. Once all the flour has been worked in, add another 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon cream cheese and 1 teaspoon milk. When the dough is well blended, add 1 egg, 1 tablespoon cream cheese and another 1/2 cup flour; mix well. Continue to add the remaining eggs, cream cheese, milk and flour, in the same measurements as before until well-blended, If dough is too dry, add a little more milk; if too wet, add a little more flour.
- On a well floured surface, roll out about 1/4 of the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using a glass, muffin cutter, or any rounded item, cut out circles of dough about 2.5-3″ across. Flour both sides of the circle and set aside in a single layer on wax paper. Repeat process with remaining dough.
- Mash the potatoes with the cottage cheese, salt and butter. Place a spoonful of the filling slightly below the center of a circle of dough. Fold the dough over and seal edges with fingertips. Use enough filling so that you have to stretch the dough over it, but not so much that it squeezes out when sealed.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in pierogis, a few at a time. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until they float to the top; drain.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry boiled pierogis in butter and onions until crispy.
Traditional Polish pierogi originated with a dry cottage cheese filling. And then the cottage cheese and potatoe filling. Fruit was common and you used what was in season from strawberries to blueberries.
Then of course were those made with sauerkraut which was home made as well. Left over meat was ground up with seasoning and onions to make meat filling so as not to
waste leftovers..
Since most families lived on farms and had their own chickens! cows , goats etc. they made their own cheese and of course massive vegetable gardens including wheat fields. To buy food was expensive so they sustained themselves with their own resources. Growing up pierogi were not the cultural cuisine they are today, they were an economic meal with home made cheese,home ground flour and home grown potatoes and onions and cabbage as week as the fruit and meat. The city relatives got their supplies from the family members still on the original farms.
When brought to North America new variations came with the addition of cheddar cheese to potatoes instead of cottage cheeses which is a little grainy.
Fried onions and bacon topped the plate and then you added sour cream. Deep frying is purely a North American spin.
We grew up on pierogi because they were a cheap meal. The same can be said for many Polish foods. They were made from what was on hand but oh so good!
I am going to have to try these! Pierogis are a favorite of mine, and after visiting Poland this year and having a giant plate of them with various fillings, I will only be eating authentic ones from now one. They were the best I’ve ever had (The potato ones were the best of the filings)!
I’m from Poland and whenever my Mom makes pierogi, she uses only flour and lukewarm water to make the dough. She puts the ingredients into the food processor and mix until it’s combined. Then she kind of ‘mashes’ the dough with hands so the gluten in the flour can start working and then she covers the dough with a wet towel and leaves it for some time (unfortunately I don’t know for how long). After that she rolls the dough and cuts it with a glass, adds filling and cooks it in the hot and salted water. Tip: it’s better to not add salt into the dough, because it will be hard after boiling- heard that everytime ;).
Anyway, I think I’m going to convince my Mom to make this recipe, it looks very interesting. Also your Grandma’s recipe kind of reminds me of russian pierogi, which I really love :).
My sister’s husband is from Poland and her mil taught her to make pierogies. The cabbage ones were sauerkraut rinsed really well then sautéed in butter with chopped bacon and then simmered in chicken broth. Absolutely to die for! The first weekend in December is dedicated to making pierogies with my sisters and nieces. A tradition we’ve carried on for 25 years!
Thanks for sharing, I will be trying this way of making cabbage pierogis, I was missing the bacon. My husband will be very happy !
When my grandmother was living no holiday or wedding was complete without kielbasa and pierogis handmade from scratch pretty much the same as your recipe. My husbands favorite was her cabbage filled ones. Sadly I never wrote down her recipe for those, I have tried to replicate it with shredded cabbage browned in butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, close but something is missing. A few years before my grandmother passed she began using flour tortilla shells for her pierogis rather than making the dough, completely encasing the potatoe filling by folding up the bottom and folding closed the sides of the torilla. This eliminated the need to boil them, she still browned them them in butter and they were very good. We carry on the tradition with our family of kielbasa and pierogis for Christmas, making extra because my son and grandson like them cold right out of the fridge the next day. Although not as good as homemade, in a time crunch, store bought frozen Mrs. T’ brand is pretty good if boiled and browned the same as homemade.
Oh how I missed homemade pierogis. Cant get them in Phoenix. Back in my hometown of Cleveland you can get good ones at pretty much any church. I am going to try them for sure. Can you freeze them? My recipe tradition from my Grandma are her Lekvar cookies we make at Christmas. They are made with a prune filing, which my family sends to me from home (can’t get that here either). Got make them every year, would be Christmas otherwise!
YES! They can be frozen before boiling them. This is how my family (from the Cleveland area :)) keeps them after making. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pierogies! It’s my favorite food! We make traditional potato as well as some with cabbage.
ENJOY!!
Most recipes I’ve seen have the mashed potatoes in them, my grandmother filled here with dry cottage cheese, sealed then boiled and drained them then poured nicely browned butter over then. To die for, she also taught me how to make haluski which are just a small dumpling noodle that you also pour brown butter on, she ate hers also with dill sprinkled on them. Btw my grandma was also red hair
These sound absolutely AMAZING!!! And, I just have to say that your Grandparent’s are two VERY Beautiful people! We make tamales every New Years Eve using my Great Grandmothers Recipe. It’s always so fun to sit around the table as a family preparing them and enjoying each others company and laughter.
Happy New Year, Friend!
xoxo
I laughed so hard when I read your adjustments to the recipe. My family has had pierogies on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. Last year, I made my grandmother’s recipe for the first time. I too had enough filling to make about 1,000 pierogies! I guess families were just larger back then?!? My grandmother used Farmer’s Cheese instead of Cream Cheese/Cottage Cheese (which is difficult to find in Arizona, but seems to be available in abundance back east when my cousins make them). Last year, my husband and I made a batch together. He filled his with BBQ pork. I laughed when he did it, but they were actually rather good and made a return appearance on the table this year. 🙂
Pierogies are a dish close to my heart. I just don’t make them enough. My youngest loves them best with fresh cherries or blueberries – me I just love them period. Thank you for sharing this recipe and reminding me of the wonderful meals my mom served us with!