PIEROGIES from the Polish Chef

 3-4 large Russett potatoes in water for 30 minutes til they are fork tender.  Remove from water, cool and peel.

Dice 1-1/2 cups onion and grill slightly in 4 T butter, til translucent

When potatoes have been peeled rice or mash.  Add: 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, 1 cup Ricotta cheese.

Mix well until smooth.   Add the onions and mix well.  Place in dish and cover.  Refrigerate.

DOUGH:

4 cups flour, 1/2 t salt

add 2 eggs to 1 Cup water and mix together well and then add to the dry ingredients.  Knead til smooth but not very long. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest 10 minutes

Cut dough in half, wrapping the one half.

flour your board, and roll out evenly but not too thin since you will be manipulating the dough around the potato.

Cut into 3" circles with cookie cutter or even a glass rim.

Using a 1 oz disher or a spoon, place a 'ball' of the potato into the middle of each 3" circle.  Flour your fingers a bit and bring up the edges around tightly so the filling doesn't come out during the boiling.

Boil a pan of water and put a little bit of oil on the tray for after the boiling so they don't stick

Drop the pierogies gently into the water when they rise to the top continue boiling for 3 minutes and remove to the oiled tray.

You can eat them right then OR better, slice more onions and brown in butter.  Fry the pierogies in butter and then add the cooked onions  Serve with sour cream

My polish friends also use saurkraut as a filling sometimes. One mom puts blueberries with sugar as a filling.  She does the same with blueberries mixed with sugar as filling

Cream Cheese Ripple Crumb Cake Marcy Goldman

This is a bold cake – very buttery and then it ups the ante with a cheesecake ripple in the center and is topped with a huge amount of addictive crumb topping. You can add some blueberries but it’s awesome just as is. This was baked in a yellow ceramic deep tart dish from Emile Henry of Canada. It is an ideal piece of bakeware but the finished cake also serves so prettily from its own baking pan.

Crumb Topping
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

Cake
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
3/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup blueberries, optional

Cream Cheese Filling
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Generously spray a 10 inch spring form pan or 9 by 13 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.

For the Crumb Topping, put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse and then processor until it’s crumbly. Empty the topping into another bowl.

For the cake, process the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to blend. Add in the butter and pulse to make a crumbly mixture. Add in the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk and processor to make a smooth batter. (Keep berries aside)

For the Cream Cheese filling, add all ingredients to food processor bowl and blend until smooth.

Smooth out half the cake batter into the pan, top with cream cheese filling and the blueberries, if using. With wet hands, spread remaining batter on top. Then place all the topping on top.

Bake 350 F for 30 minutes, then lower temperature to 325 F for another 25 minutes until cake seems firm in center. Cool well before serving. If cream cheese filling seems mushy, refrigerate cake a few hours.

Serves 12-16

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Rusic Semolina Bread Marcy Goldman

 In a large mixer bowl, blend the water, yeast and bread flour and stir well. Cover and let stand 30 minutes.

Then add the semolina or durum flour, salt, honey and olive oil and mix and then knead to make a soft dough, 5-8 minutes with a dough hook on slow speed, dusting in more bread flour as required. Remove from bowl and place in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise one hour (or overnight in fridge). Press down and shape into a ball. Roll in sesame seeds and semolina.
Place in a proofing basket or a bowl lined with parchment paper. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise another hour or until almost doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425 F. Place a Dutch oven in the oven and let heat 30 minutes (as oven is heating up).

Place bread in the Dutch oven, bake 20 minutes covered and 20-25 minutes uncovered until bread is nicely browned all over.

Cool completely before cutting.

Makes one medium loaf

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