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Blueberry pierogi are the ultimate comfort food. Our family has been making pierogi (aka vareniki) for generations. While Mom was teaching me the proper method of making pierogi (don’t worry, I shared every detail in the video!), she told me her sweet memory of Grandma making blackcurrant pierogi in Ukraine. Just as soon as the blackcurrant ripened in the forest, grandma put them in pierogi.
My grandparents (like most people in Ukraine back in the day) were poor but the beauty of Ukrainian cooking is the use of humble ingredients to make scrumptious feasts fit for kings. P.S. Be sure to watch the video recipe!
Watch How to Make Blueberry Pierogi:
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I hope you are inspired to make these blueberry pierogi for your family. You can get creative and try different fillings like cherry, plum or various stone fruit. If you’ve tried pierogi before, let me know your favorite filling and if you love them sweet or savory.
Blueberry Pierogi Recipe (VIDEO)
Ingredients
For the Pierogi Dough:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 Tbsp sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
For the Blueberry Pierogi Filling:
- 1 lb blueberrie
- 1/3 cup sugar, plus more to sprinkle the top
Instructions
- In the bowl of your mixer, whisk together 1 cup warm water, 1/3 cup buttermilk, 1/2 Tbsp sour cream, 1 large egg, and 1 tsp salt, just until blended. Note: dough can be made by hand but the mixer is much easier.
- Using the dough hook attachment, add 2 cups flour and mix on speed 2 until incorporated.
- Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time allowing each addition to incorporate before adding more. Add the last bit of flour 1 Tbsp at a time just until dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Let the dough knead on speed 2 for 15 minutes. Dough will be soft elastic and feel slightly sticky to the touch, but won’t stick to your fingers.
- Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour. Working with half of the dough at a time, roll it into a thin disk about 1/8" thick. Flipping the dough over once or twice while rolling will make it easier to work with. Cut the dough into circles using a cookie cutter or drinking glass with a 3" rim.
- Place a round of dough in the palm of your hand with the stickier side up. Add 1/2 tsp sugar to the center and about 5 blueberries. Bring the edges together and pinch tightly to create a strong seal, making sure the sugar does not spill onto the edges. Transfer finished pierogi to a floured cutting board.
- Blend the remaining scraps of dough into remaining dough half, and repeat steps 4 and 5 until all pierogi are finished.
- In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil and add 3/4 Tbsp salt. Carefully place half of finished pierogi in boiling water a few at a time (drop them close to the surface of the water to avoid hot splashes). Once pierogi float to the top, cook 1 1/2 to 2 minutes longer then remove with a slotted spoon and place into a colander to drain.
- When plating pierogi, drizzle sugar in between layers of cooked pierogi to keep them from sticking to each other. The sugar will melt over the hot pierogies and turn into a light syrup. Serve with sour cream or eat them as is. These are best eaten fresh and warm :).
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Наташенька you are a great cook and a beautiful young lady. Thank you for awesome recipes. This vareniki are the best!!! Please keep your hair up when around food. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Could you fry them in butter rather than boiling?
Hi Bess, they really need to be boiled first and then sauteed in butter.
Hi Natasha, wondering if I could use plain Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk? Thank you in advance!
Hi Yelena, I haven’t tried that but I think it could work. You might add slightly less flour since the yogurt is thicker than buttermilk.
You may also try to add a splash of the white vinegar to the milk. It worked like magic for me.!
Do you use this same recipe for the dough for savory pierogi?
Yes, the same one can be used for sweet or savory 🙂
Hi Natasha! You had wonderful camping pictures! I’m sureyou had a great time with family and friends. Anyways, I’ve been wanting to try pierogi because I’ve never had one before so this will be a good start! It looks delish! 😊
Thank you so much Sheila! 🙂 I hope you love the pierogi!
These blueberry Pierogi look so yummy! Never tried pierogi with blueberries. I need to make them with my girls, I am sure they will love it!
P.S – your foodtography is just amazing!!!
You’re so nice! Thank you dear 🙂
Wow, beautiful recipe. I have a very similar one on my website http://svetasrecipes.com
Thank you Sveta 😄.
Finally — another blueberry pieroghi lover! Our recipe comes from our Canadian grandmother whose parents were German Russians (so maybe it came from Ukraine …) who lived in the North End of Winnipeg (so maybe it came from the many eastern European immigrants who lived there too). Your recipe is much similar — except that after we boil the pieroghis, we fry them in bacon grease until golden, then layer them in a casserole dish with bacon crumbles for baking. And serve with sour cream! We also do Italian plum and cherry but blueberry is the big favorite. It’s just lovely that your post is inspiring people to make pieroghi!
Mmm we fry our is butter or bacon grease when they are savory. Do you do the same with the blueberry ones and omit the sugar sprinkling? Thank you for sharing your story with us 🙂
Aha! For savory pieroghi! But yes, we fry the fruit ones. I have an idea. Next time, you try yours with bacon and I’ll try mine with a little sugar. : – )
This sounds totally delicious! Can’t wait to try.Thank you for motivation to stay on course with wonderful inspiration. Keep it coming!
I’m so happy you’re inspired by this recipe :). That’s just awesome 🙂
Natasha, this recipe was a total bust for me on two occasions! I made this dough once (followed to a T) and it was just unmanagable. Every time I tried to roll it out it would shrink. I tried flipping it back and forth and it continued to shrink. I ended up tossing it. I made it again and it did the exact same thing. It would roll out and then when I would cut out the circular shapes, the dough would shrink back on me and be a teeny-tiny circle. It was a nightmare and I ended up throwing away the dough again. I will not give this recipe a shot again. So sad.
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. I’m always happy to troubleshoot. What kind of flour did you use and did you measure it the same way (scoop it into the measuring cup and scrape off the top and adding just enough so it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl? Also, did you knead the dough for the recommended time and try the flipping the dough over trick while rolling it out? It should not be shrinking at all by the time you are cutting out the circles. It sounds like you may have added too much flour if it was that difficult to roll out. I sure hope that helps!
Hi I have a suggestion for your dough problem. King Arthur flour sells an Easy Roll Dough Improver that you can purchase.
Go here and take a look…. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/easy-roll-dough-improver-10-oz
Hi Natasha,
Your blog looks fantastic. I’m Polish and I’m going to try making pierogi dough your way…mine is way too hard…:) I love fruit pierogi, especially jagodowe (I think that’s what you meant when you said black currants??…I think they go by huckleberries or just wild blueberries here in the US). Anyway, great job, I’m going to be a frequent guest on your blog.
Best,
Ewa
Hi Ewa, Do you put anything different in your dough? Yes huckleberries or wild blueberries would work well also. I hope you love the recipe!! 🙂
Not Ewa here, but also Polish :).
My gran’s dough recipe is actually just flour, egg and warm water, but I’m never able to give measurements, because the way we do it is we put flour directly on the table or worktop, put the egg in the middle of it all, mix, and then keep adding water and kneading until it’s the right texture. I’d even have trouble explaining what the right texture is, because I’ve been making this dough since I was little, and I just know it’s right when I see it, you know?
Anyway, I actually came here with a suggestion for serving :). For any fruit-filled pierogi, add a teaspoon of sugar to a cup of yogurt, stir well, and pour it all over warm pierogi. It’s absolutely delightful like this!
Marta, thank you for the tip. We have some frozen blueberry pierogi so I’m looking forward to trying your suggestion 😀.
Natasha, can i use the blueberry pierogi dough for making pelmeni? What do you think?
Irina from Winnipeg, Canada.
Hi Irina, yes! This dough works for both sweet and savory vareniki or pelmeni.
Awesome! Thanks!
Sweet pierogi? Oh this could get out of control! Raspberries with chocolate chips, banana with peanut butter chips, apples with raisins and cinnamon sugar….
Wow all of those combinations sound amazing!!
Hi Natasha!
Thank you for another yummy and easy recipe! Can the blueberries be substituted with mashed potatoes?
Hi Marta, yes, absolutely! Here is the recipe for the potato pierogis :). The same dough can be used for both sweet and savory fillings.
Mmmmm yummm gotta try this recipe sometime pierogi also kreplach in Yiddish maybe I’ll try with strawberry and farmers cheese wonder if they would work out being fried thanx for always updating darlin cheers
I’ve never tried frying them so I can’t say for sure if this specific dough would work fried. I do have several fried piroshki recipes that are really great though! 🙂 I also haven’t tried with strawberries but one of my readers said they work really really well with strawberries 🙂
Ok so maybe I’ll just stick to boiling these babies instead of frying I will scroll thru your other recipes gurl and find for frying pierogis thanx tons for your tips @ usual ya don’t disappoint Natasha strawberries and farmers cheese for me yeaaaaa
Hi,Natasha. I just finished making them, they were so good. God bless you!! Thanks for the wonderful recipes.:-)
Olga, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Natasha you are so awesome wife and mom. To do vareniki is a lot of work…. Who watching your kids while you did vareniki? I have no time to do it…So sad but I will. You are good mom!!!!!!!! Blessings!
Thank you Nina, you’re so nice :). We made these while our baby was taking a nap but this is half of my original recipe and making a smaller batch is so much more enjoyable and attainable. I agree, it is really hard to make alot of vareniki while watching the kids but making just 60 of them was not too bad and we made them fairly quickly 🙂
Excellent idea with fruit,they look so delicious Natasha! I always loved the boxed freezer potato onion pierogies! Can’t wait to try yours.. homemade is always the best! 😉
I know exactly which ones you’re talking about and I do think they are pretty good for store-bought! 🙂
Yum!! Would it be possible to make these with frozen blueberries? I have a bunch I’m the freezer.. would I need to thaw them out first?
P.S. I love the video recipes! Keep em coming! 🙂
Hi Lidiya, you can freeze them but be careful not to overcook them once they go into the pot since you don’t want the blueberries to leak out (there just seems to be higher risk of the filling coming out after they are frozen). Also, add them frozen to the boiling water. Do not thaw or they will just stick together badly. Enjoy! 🙂
P.S. to freeze, place them on a floured cutting board in a single layer and put the cutting board in the freezer. Once they are frozen transfer them to a large ziploc bag, dusting with a little flour as needed and place them back into the freezer until ready to cook 🙂
Thank you for the tips but I meant can I use frozen blueberries as opposed to fresh ones? 🙊
Hi Lidiya, yes that should work fine 🙂
Yum. Those are my favorite!!!
Oh awesome!! They really are such a treat 🙂