Strawberry pierogi is a classic Polish dish: sweet dumplings filled with fresh strawberries and served with honey and pistachios.
It's equally wonderful as a sunny dessert to the best of summer strawberries, or a cosy winter treat.
This strawberry pierogi recipe is from Ren Behan and is the cover star of her cookbook, Wild Honey and Rye: Modern Polish Recipes.
It's a stunning recipe book, packed with easy, delicious Polish recipes, including sweet and savoury pierogi, breakfasts, cakes, soups, salads and sides.
If you're not familiar with pierogi, allow me to explain. They're essential a sort of dumpling and are a staple in Polish cooking.
Pierogi dough is made using flour, egg, warm water and, if it's a sweet dough, a touch of powdered sugar. In this way, the dough is not all that unlike Italian pasta dough.
It's then rolled, cut into rounds a filled with sweet or savoury fillings, depending on the recipe. Common savoury fillings include potatoes, meat, cheese and cabbage.
Traditional pierogies are then briefly simmered until they float and then, often, pan fried before serving to give a gorgeous, tender dumpling with a crisp underside, a bit like a chinese potstickers.
Making these strawberry pierogi is really very easy.
To start, you'll make a simple unleavened dough by combining flour, whole egg and yolk, icing sugar, warm water and a touch of oil and then kneading until pliable and smooth.
After resting the dough, you'll roll it out, cut into rounds and fill with chopped strawberries before folding into half moons and pressing around the edge to seal. It's not a length process and is rather meditative.
Once your pierogies are all made up, you'll drop them into a pan of boiling water in batches, then brown them in a frying pan with a butter. So good! I burned my mouth eating one (or two, or three) straight from the pan!
As per Ren's instructions, I served my strawberry pierogi with slivers of pistachio and a generous drizzle of honey.
They could also work beautifully with a big dollop of whipped cream folded through with pistachio paste.
I hope you'll give these delicious strawberry pierogi a go. It's truly a delicious, moreish dessert.
Once you've given my recipe a go, I'd love you to come back and leave a comment letting me know how yours turned out.
I'd love to see your videos and pics, too! Just tag me on social media. I'm @emilylearycooks on Twitter and TikTok or @amummytoo on Instagram.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 350 g (12.3 oz) plain white flour (all purpose flour) or ‘00’ pasta flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 125 ml (4.2 floz) lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the filling and topping
- 350 g (12.3 oz) fresh strawberries hulled, quartered if large, or halved, if small, or blueberries
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 100 ml (3.4 floz) runny honey
- 50 g (1.8 oz) pistachio nuts finely chopped
Instructions
Make the dough
Put the flour, whole egg and yolk, icing sugar, warm water and oil in a large bowl.
Mix!
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and feels smooth.
Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or clingfilm (plastic wrap) and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
To fill
Divide the dough in half and keep one half covered with a damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.
Sprinkle your work surface with flour, then roll out the dough until it is about 3mm/1/8in thick.
Have a floured tray or board to hand. Using a pastry cutter or an inverted glass tumbler, cut out 8cm/3in circles of dough.
Depending on the size of the strawberries, place a couple or a few pieces in the centre of each circle. (If using blueberries, 2–3 blueberries will fit.)
(Editor's note: I chopped my strawberries as they were rather unwieldy and pointy in shape)
Fold the dough over to enclose the fruit then using your thumb and finger, pinch the dough along the edge so that the pierogi is well sealed.
Place each dumpling on the floured tray and cover with a damp tea towel while you make the rest.
To cook the pierogi
Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Carefully drop the dumplings in, a few at a time. They will sink at first, but will float up to the top when cooked – this will only take a minute or so.
Lift them out using a slotted spoon and place on a plate to cool. If you have sealed them well, none of the filling should have escaped!
Heat the butter in a large frying pan.
Gently fry the pierogi on both sides until slightly golden.
To serve
Transfer to a plate. Drizzle with honey.
Sprinkle over the chopped pistachio nuts and serve.
Enjoy your stunning strawberry pierogies.
Print this strawberry pierogi recipe
Strawberry Pierogi Recipe
Ingredients
For the dough
- 350 g (12.3 oz) plain white flour (all purpose flour) or ‘00’ pasta flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 125 ml (4.2 floz) lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the filling and topping
- 350 g (12.3 oz) fresh strawberries hulled, quartered if large, or halved, if small, or blueberries
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 100 ml (3.4 floz) runny honey
- 50 g (1.8 oz) pistachio nuts finely chopped
Instructions
Make the dough.
- Mix the flour, whole egg and yolk, icing sugar, warm water and oil together in a large bowl.
- Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and feels smooth.
- Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or clingfilm (plastic wrap) and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Fill the pierogi.
- Divide the dough in half and keep one half covered with a damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.
- Sprinkle your work surface with flour, then roll out the dough until it is about 3mm/1/8in thick.
- Have a floured tray or board to hand. Using a pastry cutter or an inverted glass tumbler, cut out 8cm/3in circles of dough.
- Depending on the size of the strawberries, place a couple or a few pieces in the centre of each circle. (If using blueberries, 2–3 blueberries will fit.)
- Fold the dough over to enclose the fruit.
- Using your thumb and finger, pinch the dough along the edge so that the pierogi is well sealed.
- Place each dumpling on the floured tray and cover with a damp tea towel while you make the rest.
Cook the pierogi.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Carefully drop the dumplings in, a few at a time. They will sink at first, but will float up to the top when cooked – this will only take a minute or so.
- Lift them out using a slotted spoon and place on a plate to cool. If you have sealed them well, none of the filling mixture should have escaped!
- Heat the butter in a large frying pan and gently fry the pierogi on both sides until slightly golden.
To serve
- Drizzle with honey and sprinkle over the chopped pistachio nuts.
Nutrition
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