Tag Archives: flour

Noodles and Dumplings

Potato Dumplings

Potato Dumplings are easy to make, and they can be plopped into clear soups or served smothered in savory gravies and sauces.

Dumplings in general are pieces of dough, usually small and variously shaped, sometimes filled with sweet or savory fillings, that are boiled, simmered, steamed, or fried. Dumplings are traditional in cuisines all over the world, but our family’s dumplings tend toward the heavier Eastern European styles.

  • 4 cups cold mashed potatoes
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten

Mix ingredients together.

Form into a roll and cut into 2″ lengths. Form each piece into a ball. Drop into rapidly boiling water or broth and cook for 15 minutes.

Dumplings

Noodles and Dumplings

Dumplings filled with cottage cheese

Bryndzove pirohy

  • 1-1/4 lb boiled potatoes
  • 1/2 lb flour
  • 1 egg
  • bacon
  • salt
  • sour cream for serving

Filling:

  • 1/2 lb cottage cheese
  • 2/3 cup grated boiled potatoes
  • chopped dill
  • 1 egg
  • salt

Pirohy: Peel the boiled potatoes, grate them and add flour, egg and salt. Make a dough, and roll it out into a thin round shape on a baking-board. Carve out the circles with form or with water glass, put on it cottage cheese filling, fold the dough over, press margins well, and boil in salted bubbling hot water. When they emerge on the surface, boil a little more and take out. Spread with fried bacon and serve with sour cream or yoghurt.

Filling: Mix cottage cheese with boiled, cooled and grated potatoes, add cut dill, egg, and a bit of sour cream. Mix well. The mixture must be quite thick.

Breads and Pancakes

Kifli

Rich crescent rolls filled with nuts or cheese, very similar to Hungarian beigli.

  • 1/2 cup warm milk
  • 2 T yeast
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 lb. butter
  • 1 t salt
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1-1/2 cups sour cream

Dissolve yeast in warm milk with 1 tbsp sugar. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour, butter and salt until crumbly.

Form a well in center and add the yolks, sour cream and yeast mixture. Knead lightly.

Refrigerate overnight, covered. Roll into tennis-sized balls. Roll each ball into a circle. Fill and roll into crescents (see fillings, below). Let rise.

Bake at 350F until golden.

Nut Filling:

Beat 1 egg. Add 1 cup ground nuts, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1 T cinnamon.

Cheese Filling:

Combine 1/2 lb. cottage cheese, 2 to 4 T sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp lemon peel, 1/2 cup raisins

Noodles and Dumplings

Homemade cut noodles

Grandma used to make her own noodles. We’d come into her house at holiday time and, amongst the containers of fragrant hoska, beigli,  and miscellaneous cookies she had ready for us, there’d often be a tray of hand-cut noodles sprinkled with flour. We knew they were being readies for some of our favorite dishes, like Cabbage Noodles or Cottage Cheese Noodles (no Italian-style pasta for us back then!)

cut noodles

Ingredients for homemade hand-cut noodles

  • 6 cups flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • salt
  • water

Mix flour, salt, and eggs. Add enough water to hold dough together without it being sticky. Cover and let rest for a while. Roll thin and let dry. Cut in strips and flour. (Very good for cabbage noodles)

Noodles and Dumplings

Pirogy

Pierogi, also known as Verenyki

Pierogies are a type of dumpling stuffed with cottage cheese and served with heaps of fried onions and sour cream.

Pierogies evoke in me a mild love/hate response. They were definitely part of our childhood gastronomical experience, and while I didn’t find them terribly exciting (rather greasy with the fried onions, actually), they seemed to provoke fierce enthusiasm in the rest of the family. How could I go against that flow?

So, for you Pierogy lovers everywhere, here is the recipe:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 egg
  • Water
  • 1/2 lb cottage cheese (can be mixed with coarsely-mashed potatoes)
  • 2 T sour cream
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 t salt
  • Fried onions and extra sour cream (optional)

For the dumpling envelopes:

Sift flour and salt into bowl; make a depression in center and drop in egg. Moisten with water to make stiff dough. Knead until smooth. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Divide dough in half and roll to 1/8″ thick. Cut into 2-1/2 to 3″ circles.

For the filling:

Mash cottage cheese (and mashed potatoes if using)  with 2 T sour cream, eggs and salt. Mix well.

Preparation:

Place 1 heaping teaspoonful of cheese on lower half of circle; moisten edge of top half with water and fold. Press edges together.

Drop into a large kettle of boiling water. Cook for 5-7 minutes, counted after water returns to boiling.

Serve with fried onions and sour cream. Some people like to brown the drained pierogies with the fried onions in a pan before serving.

Noodles and Dumplings

Knedliky

Raised dumplings

  • 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 2 T yeast
  • 1 t sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 7 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup water with sugar. Beat eggs, butter and 1 1/2 cups warm water. Add salt flour to form a dough thicker than bread dough. Knead and let rise, covered and in a warm place, until doubled. Punch down, knead and roll into dumplings the size of a small ladle. Cover and let rise 1 hour. Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to brisk boil. Throw two or three dumplings at a time and boil 4 minutes. Turn and boil another 4 minutes. Remove and cut in half with string.