Half Whole-Wheat Pierogi Dough

3.4/5 - (21 votes)
sealing a pierogi
You won’t realize that these  are made with whole-wheat flour.

After our Sauerkraut making adventures, we have about a quart of it sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be turned into something delicious. We decided to go with Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogies, which, while sounding odd, are just plain wonderful. But, we did want to try making the dough with at least some whole-wheat flour. After all, everyone should be eating more whole grains.

We’ve found the secret to replacing all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour. In general, you can’t simply replace all the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat; replacing about half of the flour works fine, but you can’t just use whole-wheat flour. Instead, use white whole-wheat flour.

What is white whole-wheat flour? It’s simply hard white wheat that’s been ground (there are hundreds of varieties of wheat, although you’d never know it from the flours in the supermarket), instead of the more traditional hard red wheat. So, it’s a whole wheat that’s lighter in color, but is also lighter in texture, making it a good substitute for all-purpose. The other thing we found is that it works well to substitute by weight. It seems as though whole-wheat flours are denser, so a cup of whole-wheat actually has more flour than a cup of all-purpose. Well, enough discussion, let’s make pierogi dough.

Half Whole-Wheat Pierogi Dough

Servings: 36 perogies
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (210 g)
  • 1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour (210 g)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp vegetable oil
  • about 3/4 cup warm water
  • your choice of pierogi filling (see note)
  • 3 Tbs butter

Instructions

  • Mix flours together in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, and add the salt, the oil, and egg.
  • Using a fork, start mixing the egg, allowing the flour to incorporate a little at a time, until the mixture is dry and crumbly.
  • Add the water a bit at a time, and mix it in as you mixed in the egg. Each time, allow the mixture to become dry and crumbly before adding more water.
  • The mixture will come together into a dough. Knead the dough until it's soft and smooth, about 6-10 minutes.
  • Wrap it in plastic wrap and let the dough rest about an hour
  • Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 of an inch thick and use a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut out circles of dough 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 inches in diameter.
  • Place about 2-3 teaspoons of your filling in the center of each circle, fold over, and crimp with a fork.
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, melt butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Working with about eight pierogi at a time, place them in the boiling water, let it come back to a boil, and boil the pierogi for 5 minutes after they float to the surface.
  • Once boiled, remove pierogi with a slotted spoon and fry in melted butter until browned on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side.

Notes

For fillings, we have two suggestions: Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogies, or Potatoes, Cheese, and Pea. Both are very good.

Ingredient discussion:

king arthur white whole-wheat flour
King Arthur mills great flour. It’s more expensive than other brands, but it’s better.

We use and recommend King Arthur White Whole-Wheat flour. King Arthur mills some of the best flours that are available nationally; we’ve never had a problem using them, unlike some other flours. As an aside, all our brand-specific recommendations are simply because they’re what we use and what we like. For the egg, get one from your neighbor. The one who’s raising hens.

Procedure in detail:

We suggest that you follow our Basic Pierogi Dough instructions, but use a large bowl for mixing the flours together before doing anything else. Then you can follow those instructions, either with everything in the bowl, or right on the counter.

For fillings, we have two suggestions: Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogies, or Potatoes, Cheese, and Pea. Both are very good.

Worth the trouble?

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