Pierogies à la Lorenz

Terry's family has eaten these on Christmas Eve for generations. It is a treasured family recipe.
Dough:
  • 2 cups mashed potatoes *
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 egg
Cheese Filling:
  • 1 cup mashed potatoes *
  • 1 cup dry cottage cheese **
  • 1 egg
  • salt and black pepper to taste
Condiments:
  • melted butter and bread crumbs
  • sour cream

Dough preparation:
Put mashed potatoes in large mixing bowl. Add egg. Mix together thoroughly with hands. Add flour a little at a time, continuing to work dough with hands. Eventually it changes from mashed potatoes to batter and then to dough. When dough is easy to handle and not too sticky, it is ready. Divide in two parts.

Filling preparation:
Put filling ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Mash together with the back of a fork until uniformly mixed. Divide in two parts

Stuffing the dumplings:
Dust a cookie sheet with flour. Dust rolling pin and rolling surface with flour. Put a small amount of water in a bowl (optional). Take one half of the dough and lay it on the rolling surface. Roll out into a rectangle until the dough is 1/8" thick or less. With a table knife, cut rolled dough into 2" x 3" pieces.

Holding a dough rectangle in your hand, put a rounded teaspoon (or more) of the filling in the center. (Put in as much filling as the rectangle of dough can hold and still be crimped shut.) If using the bowl of water, dip your finger in the water and wet the edges of the rectangle. Fold the 2" sides together and crimp the edges. Set on floured cookie sheet. Repeat.

When the first half of the dough is stuffed with the first half of the filling, repeat process with second half.

Uncooked pierogies may be frozen for future use. Place them on a floured cookie sheet (not touching each other) and place the cookie sheet in the freezer until the pierogies are hard. Then remove from the sheet and place in a freezer bag.

Cooking the pierogies:
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add some pierogies to the pot. Do not overload pot, let the dumplings swim freely so they don't stick. Boil 10 minutes. Repeat.

If you are putting the cooked pierogies in a serving bowl, be sure to coat them in melted butter to prevent sticking.

Serve hot topped with melted butter and bread crumbs, with sour cream on the side for dipping.

Makes about 40 pierogies, about 20,000 calories each.

Notes:
* Mashed potatoes should be pure potatoes, without any added milk or butter.
** Dry cottage cheese is like regular cottage cheese without being creamed. We found it under the name "farmer's cheese" in our local food co-op.

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