Another one of my favorite recipes is wareneki (perogies). It wasn’t until I moved out on my own, that I tasted potato filled perogies for the first time. I had heard about their existence, but had never actually eaten one. But cottage cheese filled perogies are still my favorite.
We normally had them on a Saturday. It seemed like an all day affair and it took many helping hands. Even though I really wanted to help, and learn how to make perogies, I was more of a nuisance and was never allowed to help. Growing up, we used unprocessed cottage cheese from the farm. But it seemed really sour to me, so I would ask my foster mother to make me ’empties’, which were just boiled dough squares. I would have about 3 empties, and 1 full perogy, which would even out the dough-to-sour cheese ratio. Nowadays, it’s quite hard to find unprocessed cottage cheese, and a lot of farmers won’t even give it out anymore due to the risk of listeria. A couple of years back, I created a recipe for a perogy distributer in Saskatchewan who really wanted to have the flavor of unprocessed cottage cheese, but wasn’t legally allowed to use it. So I used dry cottage cheese and substituted the cream with sour cream, buttermilk and heavy cream to mimic the flavor. And to this day their perogies are still selling like crazy. I can’t give out that recipe, but if you are looking for that classic flavor, play around with those ingredients and it can be done. Every now and then I make them for my family. But for those of you who prefer a milder cottage cheese, here is a recipe for homemade wareneki made with dry curd cottage cheese. And if you like your perogies with schmaundt fat like I do, click here for my recipe.
For the dough you will need 2 cups of milk, 4 eggs, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 7-8 cups of flour.
For the filling you will need 500 ml of dry curd cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (our store only had half & half, but I prefer to use heavy cream), 2 egg yolks, and salt and pepper to taste.
First make your dough. Put 2 cups of milk, 4 eggs (beaten), 2 teaspoons of salt, and 7 cups of flour in a mixer, and mix on low speed until a dough is formed.
Continue adding flour until dough is tough and no longer sticky. My dough was getting too tough for my mixer, so I continued to knead by hand while adding more flour.
Once you have a nice firm dough, cover and place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Add dry curd cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, 2 egg yolks, and salt and pepper to a bowl and mix with spoon/fork.
Roll out a portion of the dough on a flat surface (about 1/8″-1/4″ thick), and cut out circles (or squares if you prefer). I used a lid from a juice jug to cut my circles.
Put about 1 teaspoon of cottage cheese in the middle of a circle, fold, and pinch together to seal the perogy.
Place finished perogies on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Perogies can either be boiled right away, or frozen and bagged to be saved for a later day.
Boil perogies for approximately 8 minutes, or until done.
Serve and enjoy!
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- Dough: 2 cups Milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp salt
- 7 cups Flour
- Filling: Cottage Cheese
- 2 Egg Yolks
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Put milk, eggs (beaten), salt, and flour in a mixer, and mix on low speed until a dough is formed.
- Continue adding flour until dough is tough and no longer sticky. If your dough is getting too tough for your mixer, continue to knead by hand while adding more flour.
- Once you have a nice firm dough, cover and place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
- Add dry curd cottage cheese, heavy cream, egg, and salt and pepper to a bowl and mix with spoon/fork.
- Roll out a portion of the dough on a flat surface (about 1/8"-1/4" thick), and cut out circles (or squares if you prefer).
- Put about 1 teaspoon of cottage cheese in the middle of a circle, fold, and pinch together to seal the perogy.
- Place finished perogies on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Perogies can either be boiled right away, or frozen and bagged to be saved for a later day.
- Boil perogies for approximately 8 minutes, or until done.
- Serve and enjoy!
[…] Menoneechie Kitchen was great because it helped me to see what the consistency of the cottage cheese mixture should look like once mixed. Based off of my grandma’s explanation, I had no idea how much to mix it in my food processor because she didn’t give me a length of time, just a description (classic grandma doing things from memory). It was also interesting to see that she had used a different technique to form her pockets by pre-cutting circles and then folding them individually. I think that this might make for a doughier perogy (which I don’t love) so I stuck with the original version, although it’s still good to know that there’s another option. AllRecipes also used this technique in their video – perhaps I’ll try it next time. […]
[…] linked to three food blog resources that I used and one video resource from Martha […]
How many dozen does this recipe make?
My mother has always made them with Riccota Cheese. And at 81, she’s still doing it that way as well as teaching my 3 daughters. Her’s are the only ones I’ve ever had like that and are far superior to any I’ve eaten at friend’s or at the Relief Sales.
Have trouble finding dry cottage cheese! Any suggestions?
Sometimes it has been hard to find for us. we usually have the best luck at Sobeys or Superstore. Hope that helps. Cheers.
Thanks for this delicious recipe! I have made it a few times now but each time get slightly confused with the filling instructions. The recipe list says the filling requires 2 egg yolks but within the written instructions it says to add just 1 full egg? Can you clarify how many and what part of the egg goes into the filling?
Hi Sam, I apologize for the confusion. It is in fact 2 egg yolks.
Thanks so much for this. My husband is Mennonite and his mom gave me the recipe but the dough didn’t turn out right–I think that she forgot the eggs. The glum worked right–I boiled buttermilk for hours to get it just right. We can’t visit his family because of Covid so I wanted to give him a taste of home.
If you freeze them, should you thaw before cooking?
Nope. You can cook them from frozen. You’ll just need to cook them a few minutes longer.
Could you please include in the description how many vareniki this recipe will make?
That’s what we had when I was growing up was Winklers Mennonite sausage and cottage cheese vereneki with heated cream with small pieces of bacon and onion and then poured over our vereneki.
Thank you for this recipe, it’s just like I used to make with my grandmother!