Making pierogi dough is very simple. There is no mystery about it. The recipes are very simple and combining the ingredients to make a very good dough is very simple.
Seeing how it is done is the best way to start. Watch the video below.
When making pierogi dough you do not need special equipment. It does not take a lot of time. And it does not take a lot of work.
As you plan your pierogi making, first take into consideration how many people you will serve and how many pierogi you will be making.
You may want to make a batch for immediate consumption and you may want to make some to be frozen for later use.
Typically a serving of pierogi is about five or six pieces.
1 cup of flour in a pierogi mix will yield 7 to 10 three-inch circles to be filled.
The process of making an unleavened, boiled pierogi dough is straightforward. I will give you a general procedure which you can then apply to any recipe for unleavened, boiled pierogi dough.
Calculate the number of people to serve or pierogi to make and you can increase the recipe size to make the number that you want.
I however, make small batches of dough. Because I mix the dough by hand, I generally never use more than 3 cups of flour. If I am going to take the time to make pierogi, I will take a little extra effort involved in doing it by hand to assure myself that the end product is just what I want.
I do not want to beat the dough to death in a food processor or over work it with a bread mixer. By having my hands on the dough at all times, I can feel it develop it and stop when I get a dough just the way it should be.
Remember, the more that you work a dough , the tougher it will be. So I am careful to work in by hand and not overwork it.
But if I am going to be making a larger number of pierogi, I use my mixer. You can use a food processor, but do be careful not to overwork the dough. Use the food processor to combine the ingredients and then do the final kneading by hand.
Here is how to make the dough:
Put the flour and other ingredients in a mixing bowl and add 2/3 to 3/4 of the amount of water recommended.
Mix the dough with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it starts to bind. As you mix, if there is not enough water to pick up the dry flour in the bowl, add more water until it incorporates into the mass.
If you add too much water and the dough becomes tacky, no problem. We can fix that.
On your pastry board or cutting surface, spread some flour and put the dough on the.flour.
Now knead the dough a couple minutes. Gluten will start to develop and the dough will start to get a satiny feeling.
All that you want to do is have the dough bind together. And you can do that in probably two or three minutes.
If your dough started tacky, just add extra flour to your cutting board and work it in until the dough gets to be the consistency that you want.
In general, when using a mixer, add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix the mass with a bread hook. Add flour or water by the tablespoon to adjust the dough consistency to the point where it clears the side of the bowl.