leftovers again? i had dough leftover from the knishes and decided that pierogi would be the perfect snack on a holiday afternoon. pierogi are dumplings, just circles of dough filled with goodness.you can fill them with potatoes or cheese or veggies or fruit and various combos of those ingredients. the quest for dumplings continues..

to make the potato mushroom pierogi, you’ll combine elements from the recipes for potato knish dough and mushroom soup, posted earlier on the blog.

Click on the hyperlinks above to see those two recipes. you’ll also need a couple of baked potatoes for the filling.

i flattened out my leftover knish dough on a floured silpat to just the right thickness to put through my kitchenaid pasta roller. i found that a pass or two on the first setting and then a pass through on the second setting, was just the right thickness to cut my dough circles from. if you are handrolling about 1/8 of an inch thickness, should be fine. i used a 2.5 inch round cutter (about the same size you use for biscuits works perfectly). cover your dough rounds with a damp towel ,until ready to fill.

once all my circles were cut out, i mixed up my potato filling. i scooped the potatoes out out their baked shells and dumped them into a bowl and fluffed them with a fork and added just enough of the hot soup (just small amount of liquid and a nice amount of the mushrooms and onions) to get them to mashed potato consistency. the soup already has lots of butter and seasoning, so no additional seasoning or fat is required. let the potato mixture cool until just warm.

fill a small dish with warm water, which you’ll use to make your circles stick together. scoop out a scant teaspoon of the potato filling and place intot he center of the dough circle. dip your finger into the warm water and trace around the edge of the circle just to dampen and carefully fold the dough in half making a half moon shaped dumpling, keeping the filling in the center and seal the edges well.

using a large pot boil some salted water to a rolling boil and drop in the filled dumplings. boil the pierogi for 5 minutes and gently remove the cooked pierogi from the water with a spider or slotted spoon to a lightly oiled plate or pan, to cool. you could serve them this way, especially if you fill them with fruit or sweet cheese, but i like to fry them in browned butter to make them nice and crispy.

in a small (8 inch) non-stick omelet pan add a teaspoon of good olive oil and a couple tablespoons of sweet butter. heat till the butter just gets foamy and add the drained cooled pierogi to the hot pan. keep the dumplings moving and turn over when lightly browned on one side. when browned on both sides remove from pan and quickly saute some thinly sliced onion or some of the mushrooms from the soup int he remaining brown butter and use to top the pierogi.

enjoy!