I didn’t grow up with Debbie as my mom. I was adopted as a baby and I only met Debbie when I was 15 years old, which was lucky as most people have to wait until the age of 19 to search for their birthparents or vice versa. I just kicked up such a fuss about it that they gave in. I guess I just always knew that meeting Debbie was going to be one of the best things to happen to me in my life. I know she feels the same (insert heart emoticon here).
Growing up, I didn’t know very much about Debbie at all. My (also wonderful) adoptive parents knew that I had a background that is predominantly Ukrainian (Debbie) and Irish (my father Darrel) and they encouraged me to explore those cultures. My brother, also adopted, is predominantly Norwegian, and they did the same for him. Most notably the Norwegian Lefsa that we made every single Christmas that I absolutely love! For me, they signed me up for Ukrainian dancing lessons which I did, at times begrudgingly, for a couple of years (I think) and wore the whole outfit and did shows and such until I decided I had enough. I may not have appreciated what my parents were trying to do so much as I do now.
There are not a ton of “Ukrainian” things that are a part of my life now even after I have met Debbie, but one thing that is are Perogies! Homemade perogies! Now that I have had them, there really is no other kind. Every so often we get together at my Grandma Pat’s house and make copious amounts of Perogies stuffed with potatoes, cheese and onions. At one of these Perogie making sessions, I was introduced to Blueberry Perogies.
Blueberry Perogies are kinda like tiny boiled blueberry pies. They are often eaten with sour cream or pan fried in butter, but this time Debbie and I made a blueberry sour cream sauce to spoon over them that I will always and forever eat them with. So freeking good! Like little bites of heaven lol.
Previously, when we have made these, we thawed the blueberries first and then mixed them with cinnamon and a little sugar before stuffing spoonful’s into pockets of dough and trying to pinch them together and seal them before the filling found all the little holes that didn’t get sealed properly and started oozing out. It’s nearly impossible to fix this and they will open up when you cook them so these have to get thrown out. So annoying!
This time we tried it with frozen blueberries and it worked much better. No oozing juice and much easier to seal the perogies properly. The only thing is that they don’t look as pretty because the hard blueberries kind of bulge out in some spots, but that’s a small price to pay in my opinion. You don’t care what they look like when your digging your fork into them anyways…!
It’s interesting the memories and thoughts that food brings to mind, hey? Like how these blueberry perogies remind me of Ukrainian dancing and how I found my mom. :)
Blueberry Perogies
Author: Cooks with Cocktails
Ingredients
- DOUGH
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ cup water
BLUEBERRY FILLING - 2 cups frozen blueberries
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM SAUCE - 1 cup frozen blueberries, thawed
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1½ tsp powdered sugar
Instructions
- MAKE THE DOUGH
- Mix the flour and salt together in a mixer. Add the eggs and water and knead until its smooth. Mould the dough into a ball, cover the dough and let it sit for at least 2 hours or overnight. (you can also do this by hand, you will just have to use a little elbow grease to knead the dough)
MAKE THE FILLING - Place the blueberries, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mix till the blueberries are coated. Its ok if the sugar and cinnamon fall to the bottom of the bowl a bit. Just make sure to scoop some up when you fill the perogies.
MAKE THE SAUCE - In a bowl, mix the thawed blueberries with the powdered sugar and the sour cream. Set aside.
MAKE THE PEROGIES - Cut the dough into quarters. Take one of the quarters and cover the rest. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. You want it to be quite thin. Using about a 3 inch in diameter glass or round cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can get. Try to make them close, because the more you re-roll the dough, the tougher it gets.
- Take one of the dough circles and spoon a tablespoon and a bit of filling into the middle of the circle. Pull the sides around the filling to meet the other side of the dough. Pinch the sides of the dough together really well so that the edges are sealed. Continue with the rest of the dough and filling.
- While you fill the perogies, boil a bit pot of water on the stove. When you're ready, drop a few perogies into the boiling water and boil for about 5 mins. Pull the perogies out with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate. Cover with blueberry sauce and serve right away.
- Enjoy!
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