Sweet Pierogi; traditional simple Polish dumplings filled with fresh juicy blueberries and raspberries, dusted with sugar and dolloped with sour cream.
To watch me make and taste test these sweet pierogi, check out the video on my YouTube channel here!
Pierogi are traditional dumplings served in Poland. Typically they are cooked with savoury fillings such as sauerkraut or mushrooms, but they are also served as a sort of dessert filled with sweet seasonal fruits.
To my poorly travelled Scottish palate, these were certainly unlike anything I’d tasted before. Making and cooking the dough made me think of Italian ravioli or tortellini, and the shape of the dumplings was reminiscent of a Japanese gyoza. Biting in, the sweet tanginess of bursting berries felt like I was chomping on a Berliner doughnut, causing even more confusion.
However, despite my reservations, I couldn’t stop eating these little dumplings.
The sweet pierogi have a soft but chewy texture, due to the resting stage of the cooking process. The interior boasts a bursting berry flavour, sweet and warm as you bite into it. A dusting of icing sugar and the slightest kiss of sour cream on each dumpling makes this a sweet, tangy, soft, chewy mouthful dissimilar from anything else I’ve had. I loved it.
While I am now on a race to make the more traditional savoury pierogi, I will not be neglecting an opportunity to make more sweet pierogi very soon. The thought of adding a little chocolate or some spice to these sugary dumplings is making my mouth water already.
Obviously in sharing this recipe I do not claim to be an expert in all things Polish food, let alone their much-beloved pierogi. I simply wish to share to an English speaking audience the delight of these little known sweet dumplings.
I hope you’ll fall for them too!
To make these sweet pierogi, simply follow the recipe below!
Sweet Pierogi
Notes
*BE A MAVERICK: why not add a square of white chocolate to the centre of your pierogi along with the berries?
Ingredients
For the sweet pierogi dough:
- 500g plain flour
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 medium egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 200ml warm water
To fill and cook the sweet pierogi:
- 200g fresh raspberries
- 200g fresh blueberries
- Icing sugar (to serve)
- Sour cream or creme fraiche (to serve)
Instructions
To make the sweet pierogi dough:
- Tip the flour, icing sugar and salt onto a clean work surface.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and crack in the eggs with a few tablespoons of the warm water.
- Use your hands to bring the mixture together into a slightly sticky rough dough.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes. The dough should become noticeably smoother and more elastic. If it is too sticky or too dry, add a little more flour or water, respectively.
- Once kneaded, cover the ball of dough with cling-film and rest for 1 hour.
- Cut the rested dough into two halves.
- Roll one of the halves out on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 3mm thick.
- Use a round cutter or the rim of a glass to cut circles out of the dough, they should be roughly 8cm in diameter.
- Follow the steps below to fill your blueberry pierogi, before rolling out and filling the other half of your dough to make the raspberry pierogi.
To fill and cook the sweet pierogi:
- Place 2-3 blueberries, or 1 raspberry, in the centre of each circle. You may not need all the berries.
- Fold one half of each circle over the filling, pressing the edges together into a half-moon shape. I just did this using my hands but you can also crimp the edges with a fork if you like. Be sure to press the edges together really well as you don’t want them to split apart when cooking!
- Keep the filled dumplings in a single layer under a damp tea towel as you fill the rest.
- To cook the pierogi, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
- Carefully drop the pierogi into the pan one at a time, cooking no more than six of them at once. The pierogi should take 3-5 minutes to cook through, and should float when ready.
- When cooked, drain the pierogi and stir a small lump of butter through them to stop them from sticking together. Repeat until all your dumplings are cooked,
- Serve the sweet pierogi warm with a sprinkle of icing or caster sugar over the top, and a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche.
- Enjoy!
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.