These ingredients will make 12 – 18 pierogi
3 cups or 14oz plain flour
1 egg
Cup of warm water
6 tart apples – peeled and cored
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp or 25g butter
200 ml cream
- Mix the flour with the egg in a large bowl
- Add the warm water teaspoon by patient teaspoon until the dough binds. How much you’ll need will depend on how humid a day it is, how large the egg was etc. Go carefully – though you can do a slight rescue with a bit more flour
- Stick the dough in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge to rest for ten minutes while you get on with the filling
- Grate three of the apples and mix with the cinnamon
- Flour the surface, the divide the dough into quarters (it’s easier to roll out smaller amounts of dough), then roll out to a few mm thick. Use a cutter (or a glass) to cut out disks
- Place a tsp of the apple filling on the disk and fold over, crimping down the edges and being sure to press out as much air as possible
- Bring a pan of water to the boil and poach the pierogi for 3 minutes to cook the flour
- At this stage, you can leave them covered in the fridge until you want to eat them
- Fry them in butter until crisp.
- (You can also make them up to this stage, and get the frying over and done with, reheating them in a medium oven until warmed through before serving.)
For the compote:
- Dice the other three apples and fry with the sugar and 2 tbsp of butter. Try not to poke them around – just let them cook until caramelized and brown
- Stir in the cream and let the sauce bubble madly for a few seconds
- Pour over the pierogi to serve
- (This can also be made in advance and reheated, but you may have to add more cream if the mixture is too thick)
This recipe originally appeared in a discussion of what to cook for Hannukah when your reliable source of home made latkes has moved to Abu Dhabi.