The Daring Cooks' Challenge - Pierogi

Last month I signed up with the Daring Cooks and the Daring Bakers over at The Daring Kitchen.  Every month each group has a challenge in which all the members take part.  It's not a competitive challenge, more a challenge to ourselves as cooks.  It's a way to push ourselves to explore different ingredients, learn new techniques and become better in the kitchen.  Everyone in the group cooks the same thing, with certain variables allowed and we all post the results on the same day on our blogs.  This is my first Daring Cooks' Challenge!

The August 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n' Bites and Anula of Anula's Kitchen.  They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

Since I'm a bit of a gypsy these days and I'm sorry to say I have no idea what food best represents east Tennessee, I decided not to participate in the optional portion of the challenge.  I recently went on Atkins and decided to challenge myself to try and come up with a low carb pierogi.  To that end I made a crab filling.  I also made a run at using almond flour to make the dough.

The filling was delicious, similar to a crab rangoon filling, and will work perfectly as a crab salad or a crab dip.  The almond dough, not so much!  What I forgot when reading flour labels and only looking at carb counts is that almond flour, like all nut flours is gluten-free.  

I made up my batch of almond dough to what I felt was the correct consistency, let it sit and then started to roll it out.  The dough was crumbly and had no elasticity,  not surprising since the gluten in the flour is what gives elasticity to the dough.  When I tried to form the pierogi it consistently cracked and fell apart.

I finally realized what was going on and decided to add some regular wheat flour to see if I could salvage my dough.  Back and forth I went with flour and water with no success until I could no longer decide whether I needed more flour or more water to produce the result I was seeking.  At this point I scrapped my almond dough and started over.  The second time around I made the standard flour, egg, salt and water dough and, not surprisingly it worked perfectly.  So much for the low carb version!

Here is the rolled out dough and filling in the pierogi or dumpling mold, ready to be formed - 

and after - 

This handy little gadget made short work of forming the pierogi.  It cost $.95 at my local Cook's Corner.

It was a fun experience.  The pierogi were very good and so I guess I was successful at the Challenge.  I failed in my personal challenge to create a low-carb pierogi but I was very happy that I was challenged, which is the whole point!

What's going on this month with the Daring Baker's is top secret until we publish on the 27th so come on back to see what we're doing!  Want a hint?  Think Gloria Estefan!  Still not sure?  Better come see on the 27th!

If you're interested in creating these crab-filled pierogi, here's the recipe - 

Filling

8 oz crab meat

8 oz cream cheese

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons chopped chives

¼ teaspoon cayenne papper

salt & pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together, salt and pepper to taste and set aside.  Letting the cream cheese warm up a bit will make it easier to mix. 

Dough 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup lukewarm water

Mound 2 cups of flour on your work surface or in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center and add the egg, salt and a little of the water.  Start working the ingredients together, adding water and flour in small amounts as you knead it until you achieve a soft dough.  Don't expect to use all the water.  Cover the dough with a towel and let it sit for twenty minutes.  (This allows the gluten strands to relax.)  In the meantime, set a large pot of salted water to boil.

Roll our your dough very thin, about 1/8".  Cut out the dough using a 2" cutter or one that gives you a circle comparable to size of your dumpling maker.  I found it easier to roll the dough as thin as I could, cut it out with my 2" cutter and then roll the individual circles even thinner.  Gather up your scraps and re-roll, cutting out new circles until all the dough is used.

Place the circle of dough on the dumpling maker, add a small amount of filling and fold the form over, making the dumpling.  If the filling oozes out the dough will not seal.  Use less filling next time.

Once your dumplings are ready, put them, a few at a time, in the salted water.  The pierogi will be done a few minutes after they float to the surface.  About five minutes total.  Cook the pierogi in shifts until they are all done.  Serve immediately.

Pierogi may be frozen prior to boiling.  When you're ready, drop the frozen pierogi into the boiling water, do not thaw ahead of time.