Oh yes. Gluten-free pierogi. This recipe was so well-loved by my family that I made it twice in 3 days. I rolled some thicker, some thinner, and it all went together flawlessly. The taste was even better. Everyone enjoyed them and my brother’s voice fell in the way only a fourteen-year-old boy’s can when I told him that no, there were no more.
I’ve made them just about every way. Make and boil right away, save leftover boiled ones in the fridge, panfry leftovers, microwave leftovers, or even freeze just-made ones and boil from frozen. It all worked. It all worked beautifully. I don’t think there was a way that I preferred. Everything was comforting and pleasing.
The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.
I made a basic dough and filled almost all of them with a ricotta mixture. It was the perfect filling for my family and I. Mom loved every bite and Dad even declared “Pierogi Madness”. Yup. These ones did it. They’re here to stay. Thank you so much to Liz and Anula for introducing them!
Gluten-Free Pierogi Recipe
Adapted from the August 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge. Adaptation by Lauren of Celiac Teen.
Ingredients (makes about 36 to 40)
1 cup tapioca starch/flour (4.65 ounces)
1 cup sweet rice flour (5.25 ounces)
1/2 cup millet flour (2.85 ounces)
1/2 cup brown rice flour (3.00 ounces)
1 tbsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 egg whites
Steps
Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in wet ingredients until it comes together. This will be a slow process.
Once you have a piece that is big enough to knead, do so, slowly adding in some of the crumbly bits. Take a bit at a time, until it is all incorporated. Once the dough is pliable and feels good under your hands, with no streaks of dry flour in it, form into a ball. Cut off 1/4 of the ball and place the rest in your bowl, with a damp paper towel over-top to keep it moist.
Knead your quarter a little bit more, then roll out the dough, turning and moving as you go. I didn’t flour the surface because mine didn’t need it, but if yours is sticking quite well to the counter, roll out on a floured surface. Once the dough is quite thin (a few millimeters tall), cut into circles (a glass works great for this). If the cut circles need a touch of individual rolling, do so.
Place a small amount of filling (~ 1 tsp, depending on the size of your circles) in the centre and pinch the top together, then go up the side from bottom to the top and repeat on the other side, sealing up to the top. Finally, seal with a fork by going around the edge. Flip over and repeat.
Use the rest of the dough, one quarter at a time, until all of your pierogi are finished. Knead together scraps and re-roll. They did not suffer from being re-rolled.
To cook, bring water to a boil. Salt as desired. Cook pierogi in the boiling water for five minutes.
If freezing first, freeze on a flat surface in a single layer until frozen. Once frozen, place in a freezer plastic bag until needed. Mine were eaten within two days, but I suspect they would last at least one week, if not two in the freezer. When cooking them from frozen, do not thaw. Simply cook in boiling water for 5 minutes, the same as fresh.
Enjoy!
For my filling, I mixed together one 500 g package of ricotta (drained), 3 large egg yolks and some salt and pepper. For one and a half batches of dough, I used that. The other half, I used a purchased white bean pesto.
This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
I adored this dough. I could work with it all day (or at least until it was time to eat 🙂 ).
So simple. Lots of rolling and lots of cutting of circles, but that simply made it more and more fun.
When they were formed, they looked like this. I wish I had a bowl of these in front of me right now, because that would mean that a meal of them would be only 5 (okay, maybe 8, including cooling time) minutes away.
The boiled beauties. I need to make these often, or possibly teach my brother. With an end result like this, I know he could be game (at least more likely than many other things!).
With the few that were leftover, I panfried some for a second meal. Top with some sour cream and good cheese and you’re golden. These were fantastic.
Now, before I say goodbye today, I would like to invite you to something (short notice, yes – I’m sorry for that). On Monday, I will be sharing my worst kitchen disasters. Those that we like to forget about. Those that help us learn the most. Those that were so incredibly bad that we ended up laughing because of how bad they were. Do you have those too? I thought so :). What I’m asking is simple: post about it on monday. Maybe it’s a few paragraphs, maybe it’s a few photos, maybe you dismissed it before any photos could be taken. Whatever the case, I can’t wait to see you back here then. I’ll link to all of the submissions, so we can all laugh and learn together!
xoxo
Lauren
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Gorgeous, like giant raviolis 🙂 Beautiful job on the challenge! I’ll be joining in on Monday, I already know what to talk about!
Yummy! Rolling and cutting dough is my nemesis but I think it would be worth it for these tasty lovelies! I love Pierogies and my kids love them.
And I think I will join you in kitchen disasters on Monday.
How fun. I’ll be joining in on Monday’s kitchen disasters theme. Can’t wait to hear some of yours! 🙂
I’ll admit, I was scared when I saw the challenge. Seems out of season. And I wondered if you were going to do it. After you left I actually thought out it and wondered if it was possible GF. Glad to see that it is!
I agree, this recipe lends itself beautifully to gluten free!! I wanted to make mine with rice flour, only to find that I was sadly running low. So I did part rice flour recipe :)) I like your ricotta filling.. simple and light
GORGEOUS!
Looks like the gluten-free version worked so well for you — congrats!!!!!!!!!!!
And yum, I *must* give these a go sometime.
well done for making your gluten free versions, they look delicious!
These look wonderful, and I bet the ricotta filling was delicious! So glad the gluten-free version worked so well, and I see plenty of pierogies in your future!
Your family must be so glad you became a gluten-free blogger. Those pierogies look beautiful. I used to buy frozen ones and panfry them and serve with salsa, sour cream and guacamole before we knew what celiac disease was. 🙂 Maybe I’ll get brave and try your recipe. It can’t be any harder than ravioli and I’ve done that.
wendy
Great job! If you can get a 14 year old boy – a brother, no less! – that excited about something you cooked, you know you are on to something good! I am so glad you found a successful gluten free recipe!
Lauren these look fantastic! I’m always amazed at how you turn pretty much any recipe into a gluten-free one. That dough looks perfect.
WOW! what a good looking recipe, I am going to try these soon:)
I have never made Pierogi, but they look delicious — especially that last photo. I’m a sucker for sour cream & cheese.
What a wonderful idea – to share our kitchen “flops.” Not sure if I’ll be able to join in…Can’t wait to see what everyone shares.
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? I hope so! I saw you making pies at Cheryl’s and I just had to come for a visit. I’m a quilter not a cook but a quilter still needs to keep up her strength. lol Pierogi!!! woo hoo
You know it’s good when your family loves it too! 🙂 I’ll have to give this recipe a go, it looks SO good!
oh, fantastic! i recently found your blog through gluten free girl and i must say, you are so inspiring! it’s hard to believe you’re only 17! thank you so much for sharing your delicious recipes. i can’t wait to try these gluten free pierogis (as i’ve been looking for some for ages) and all of your other recipes. 🙂
Do you think I could make cheese raviolis with this dough? The pierogies look so tasty.
Sue, I haven’t tried it yet, but you likely could. I would just be careful to make sure the dough is rolled thin enough (but not so thin it will break) and the edges are sealed really well :).
Great looking pierogi! You did a wonderful job 🙂
Thank you for taking part this month.
Cheers. Anula.
Absolutely fabulous Lauren – so glad your family enjoyed them too. They’re lucky to have you around!!!!
Wow, your pierogis all look even and perfect! Great job on this challenge!
Amazing job, Lauren! I’m glad your gluten-free version was such a success!
Lovely job! Your pierogi look absolutely beautiful!!
Lauren, these look so lovely! I love that you pan-fried them – I tried both ways and the pan-frying definitely added a lovely texture. A treat of the highest degree!
Lovely Lauren!!! I LOVE Pierogies! Thomas at the GF/CF Experience made them a few years ago and I had to try his recipe when he made them. My husband and I were in heaven eating them!!! These look so delicious!!
Yay! My mom made fresh perogies for us all the time growing up. I loved them so much! Her and my dad just became gluten-free last year. I am for sure going to send her this recipe. Your perogies look perfect, by the way, much better then mine ever do. 🙂 Good going Lauren!
Your pierogi look beautiful, Lauren. Love both fillings – the white bean pesto intrigues me and sounds wonderful 🙂
Gorgeous & very well done!! I love the multiple fillings, too. Thanks for linking up this fab recipe! Hugs!!
They look wonderful, you would never know they were gluten free. Thank you for this version.
have you ever tried perogies with strawberry filling? of coarse we call them verenekie but they are the same, my mother always makes a desert one with strawberries. For those in the family here in calgary – one of us always invites her from the kootenays during strawberry season then we put her to work and we all pig out. They are to die for you should try them, just cut up strawberries and sugar to taste then after filling up the dough just toss themin a pot of water. We are known to stand around the pot waiting for the batch to come out of the pot with our forks poised to grab. A little splash of whipping cream always goes good
Kathy, that sounds delicious! Thank you for the idea :).
I made these last night! The dough is super wonderful to work with and I used a martini glass to cut them out so they were a lot bigger than yours! I doubled the batch and got 44 pierogi total. Two kinds of filling were potatoes/romano/parmasean/garlic/butter & Polish sauerkraut/other half of the potato mixture.
This was my first attempt at making anything GF and what a great way to start! I have a Vitamix dry blender, so I made my own millet flour and brown rice flour and the rest of the stuff was purchased. Can’t wait to try more recipes in the future!
I made these today for my husband’s birthday! For a half batch: I substituted plain goat’s milk yogurt for the cream and used one whole egg instead of 1.5 egg whites. For filling, I cooked a pot of finely chopped collard greens with onions (collards are a cousin of cabbage), drained then sauteed them in a bit of butter to cook off the liquid. After boiling them, I pan fried them in butter with onions.
Pierogi is my husband’s ultimate childhood comfort food, and this was our first attempt at making them since going GF. These were delicious and will definitely be made again! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I’ve been wishing for a gluten free recipe since going gluten free 6 years ago. This made our night and these will be going to a nye party in a few days. Think I am going to make some traditional and some with a artichoke dip in them. yum!
Hi,
I’ve recently become wheat intolerant, and, have been looking for replacement recipes for some of my favorite dishes. This dough is excellent! I used it to make raviolis filled with a ricotta filling similar to yours, and, they were delicious. I cut some of the dough into noodles, and, they tasted better than homemade noodles out of regular flour. I will be making pierogis also, with cabbage and with potatoes. Thanks so much for this recipe.
Thanks for this recipe! Pierogi are just awesome and now my coeliac wife and I can enjoy them together – she’s never had one! Time for me to whip out the chef hat 🙂
Thanks. We are adopting from Eastern Europe and newly gluten free. Now we can have the best of both and give our little guy food he knows that won’t be bad for one of my other children.
Thank you so much, Lauren. My husband was recently diagnosed as gluten intolerant, and I have been struggling to find replacements for our family favorites. I grew up on pierogies, and your recipe is amazingly close to the “real thing.” I used superfine sweet rice flour from the asian markets, and had to seriously increase the amount of flour used to make up for the finer texture, but I can’t say enough good things about the end result. Bless you for keeping a family tradition alive in our home 🙂
I am so glad that you blog, my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease two days ago and I am overwhelmed on what to cook. We celebrate Ukrainian Christmas and were worried how to make pierogies. We no longer live in Calgary where it might be easier, but live in Texas where finding a regular pierogi is difficult enough. We will try your recipe along with others to see how it works. I look forward to your other recipes too. Thank you for sharing!
These look SOOO yummy! Is there any other flour I can use instead of Millet? It’s the only ingredient of this recipe I don’t have on hand. Thanks!
Amazing! I cannot wait to try making these. Thanks Lauren!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I am 55 years old and was diagnosed with hashimotos 2 years ago and have been Gluten Free ever since. I watched my Ukranian grandmother and then my mother make these since I was born and it has made me sick that I could no longer eat them. I made this recipe with a few variations and they turned out PERFECT. I wish I could submit photos. To the dough I added on egg yolk. this gave the dough the perfect color. The filling was half mashed potatoes and half ricotta cheese with 1 TBSP butter and 1//2 onion sauted in minimal butter and salt and pepper with one more egg yolk added. These were not only picture perfect they tasted amazing and were made almost exactly like my grandmothers and her mothers and her mothers etc…all born in the Ukraine. How special that I can now continue on this tradition of homemade petehe’ ( as we call them in Ukranian). My own daughter helped me make them. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this recipe.
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