Growing up in 1930s Saskatchewan with Ukrainian parents, Mary Didur started making perogies when she was five or six years old. She said, “the recipe has gone through so many changes…Each time it has changed hands, it has been improved. My mother probably got her recipe from her mother, in Ukraine.”
Shared here with permission from her son Allan Didur. Photo of Mary Didur.
Aw58, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Step 1: For the dough, mix together flour, oil, milk, water and salt. Knead dough until smooth. Let stand for 30 to 60 minutes.
- Step 2: For the potato-cheese perogy filling, boil potatoes as you would for mashed potatoes. Drain.
- Step 3: While potatoes are hot, stir in cheddar. Cover until cheese is melted, about 1 minute.
- Step 4: Stir in sautéed onion; using potato masher, mash until smooth. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 5: Using a clean cloth, squeeze out all moisture from cottage cheese. Stir into potato mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 6: With rolling pin, roll out the dough really thin. Cut dough into squares. (I prefer to make smaller perogies, so they’re 2 x 2 inches/5 x 5 cm.) Spoon about 1 tbsp (15 mL) of potato-cheese filling onto each square. Fold dough into triangle and pinch edge closed to seal in filling.
- Step 7: Add perogies to a pot of boiling water. Once they are floating, cook for 1 to 1½ minutes.
Dough Ingredients
- 4½ cups flour
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup milk, room temperature
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 tsp salt
Potato-Cheese Perogy Filling
- 6 large red-skinned potatoes (not baking potatoes), peeled and halved
- 4 to 6 oz medium cheddar cheese
- ½ cup cottage cheese
- 1 medium onion, diced, sautéed in butter
- Salt and white pepper to taste