I was really excited to see the challenge this month, as this brings back sooo many memories for me of my Mom. She made these once from scratch as part of a school fundraising dinner, making hundreds, of which I had a few, and I immediately fell for these. As a yearly birthday gift, I got to choose the dinner on my special day, and I almost always chose these. Somehow, they didn't have the same specialness once Mrs. T's came around! :-)
She has passed now, and I have held on to the cookbook she used to make that very first batch, one that makes me smile every time I saw it.This was my first time attempting these and the taste memory was still right there!
I chose to attempt the ones that Mom used to make and in the cookbook, there is a dough recipe and 8 filling recipes. I chose my favorite, potato filling. It calls for lightly caramelized onion in the filling, which is my favorite topping for pierogies, so it was totally win-win!
I found the dough easy to work with, even if I did have to use an extra teaspoon of water. I think my flour was dry. I used some thin skins potatoes and my recipe called for mashed potatoes, butter, onions and salt & pepper. I made the assumption it was "plain" mashed potatoes instead of prepared mashed potatoes. I made the mistake of using a beater on the cooked potatoes and ended up with glue! I added the butter and onions and it pulled together for the stuffing, but I wonldn't have served it plain.
After preparing them, I boiled them, then fried them in butter, just like Mom used to do and they were heavenly! I don't know if it was the fact that I have developed as a cook, or I made a much smaller batch, but it wasn't nearly as time consuming as I thought and I can really see these having a value as a skill to me. I can't wait to try more flavors! Love you, MOM :-)
