LITHUANIAN PIEROGIES

Steps:

• 1. Mix the dough ingredients. (First 4 listed)Dough will be soft, so have extra flour for rolling out on; adding etc.
• 2. Mix your filling ingredients. (Last 3 listed) To make: Work on a large table. Using a well-floured wooden board or table top surface,( I put a vinyl cloth down) roll out 1/2 of the dough; sprinkling more flour on it as needed to be less sticky. Roll as thin as for a cut out sugar cookie. Then using a nice size glass, cut your circles;dipping your glass into the flour with each cut. When you have all your circles cut, lift away the excess dough to a pile to use later. Circles will not stick if you use enough flour.
• 3. On your table, spread some wax paper sheets out and well flour them. This is where you'll place the finished pierogies until you par-boil them. Important to flour the wax paper to prevent sticking. Now using a spatula or carefully lifting - take one circle at a time and fill w/ about 1/2-1 tsp of filling. To close your pierogie take your finger into the warm water and go around the inside of each dough circle edge. Fold over your pierogies to make a half- moon shape. Close by pinching the edges of your dough so there are no holes along its edge. (Important so the filling cannot escape) As you complete each pierogies lay it onto the waxed paper. Keep going using the dough and cutting circles and filling them until all the pierogies are complete. Should make about 30.
• 4. When finished, bring some water to boil in a large frying pan and par-boil the pierogies to "set them" for about 2 minutes. Place on a plate or more wax paper. When drained enough, you can freeze them or put them into plastic container until ready to make them for a meal. I fry butter and onions and add my pierogies to fry them on each side. If using frozen ones, I par-boil them to thaw again and then cook in my frying pan.