Bacon & Blue Cheese Pierogies
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Cook time: 
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Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • ¼ cup light sour cream
  • ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • ½ cup onion, very finely minced
  • 3 medium russet potatoes, washed, peeled, and cut into uniform pieces
  • ½ cup milk (plus more to desired consistency)
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 4-5 slices low sodium bacon
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • ½ cup mushrooms, chopped
  • 1-2 ounces gorgonzola cheese
  • 1-2 tablespoons butter
  • green onions to garnish
  • light sour cream for serving
Instructions
  1. To prepare the dough, in a large bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Stir in the egg. Cut in the sour cream & Greek yogurt. Then cut in the cold butter pieces (I use the back of a fork to do this).
  2. Work the dough with your hands for about 6 minutes until it's lost most of its stickiness. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
  3. To prepare the filling, first heat the olive oil in a small skillet. Cook the onions over medium high heat until translucent- 4 or 5 minutes.
  4. In a large saucepan, cover the potato pieces in water and boil uncovered until fork-tender (the time will depend on the size of your pieces). Drain the potatoes and return to the saucepan. Mash the potatoes. Add the cooked onions, milk, salt, and pepper. Keep stirring until smooth, adding more milk as needed. You want the potatoes to be pretty thick, so just add the milk a little at a time. Set the potato mixture aside.
  5. Cook the bacon and place on paper towels to drain. Chop the bacon into bits.
  6. Heat the olive oil and saute the mushroom pieces until they are just slightly golden. Set the mushrooms aside.
  7. Roll out the chilled dough to ⅛ of an inch thick. Cut the dough into 2-inch circles (you can use a biscuit cutter; I used a floured juice glass). You'll have 18-24 circles.
  8. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the potato mixture onto each dough circle. Top the potato with a few crumbles of chopped bacon. Then mushrooms. Then the crumbled gorgonzola cheese.
  9. Fold each circle over the filling into a half-moon shape. Press the edges with the tines of a fork.
  10. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop the pierogies a few at a time into the water. When they float, remove them with a slotted spoon.
  11. After you've boiled all the pierogies, heat the last two tablespoons of butter in a skillet. Brown the pierogies until they are golden and toasty on each side.
  12. Garnish with the green onions. Serve with the sour cream.
Notes
#1- Prep time includes the hour to chill the dough. Active prep time is 35-45 minutes. #2- I've had good luck freezing tightly wrapped UNCOOKED pierogies. No thawing required, just drop them into the boiling water and wait for them to float. I've also had good luck refrigerating the boiled pierogies so that when I'm ready to eat I just have to heat them with butter in the skillet. #3- Don't try subbing the butter for oil when browning. I was looking to drop those last two tablespoons of butter to reduce a few calories, but the flavor was just not as good. They came out a bit greasy/oily. #4- Butter is good.
Recipe by Sugar Dish Me at https://www.sugardishme.com/bacon-blue-cheese-pierogies/