Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Pierogis

Or as they are called in any Low German/Mennonite home, vareniki (or some other similar anglophile spelling). I would like to stress that GF versions of childhood/comfort foods are really the only thing I crave with a passion. So when I found a recipe for pierogi's this past week I might have been reborn a little.

To add to that excitement while picking up some groceries I found GF/Lactose Free "Mennonite Style Farmer Sausage" well I squealed in the store. Yes I squealed.

So as to the recipe - it's from this brilliant woman - Celiac Teen.

I did modify her recipe.  Because I cannot leave well enough alone.

Actually I did because I did not have sweet rice flour which should not be confused with white rice flour. So I added 1/2 cup of tapioca for half of the rice flour and used white rice flour for the other half. I also added 1/2T more xanthum gum. The dough was good, a tad dry so have a little moisture on hand. It was a little tight. So I would suggest the tapioca substitution and 1tsp of the xanthum if you're worried. I did have a friend ask if it could be made egg white free - I imagine you could do that by replacing by volume the liquid with milk and adding more xanthum gum.

We filled half with fruit and half with crumbled pressed ricotta and egg mixture. Ricotta can be made at home with any milk of your choosing - goat in this case. (Serious Eats NYC has a good post on this or look here ).  We filled the other half with a strawberry rhubarb filling which was amazing.  Yes we used fruit - it is really common in Mennonite homes to use seasonal fruit as well - you'll see plums, blueberries, cherries and apricots - or really fruit you'd use for platz. Or you can sub a more vegan friendly filling of potato and sauerkraut or whatever floats your Eastern European comfort food boat. 


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