Cherry Vareniki (Cherry Pierogi)
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Once you make the Basic Vareniky Dough, the cherry vareniki filling is very straightforward. You’ll need about 1lb pitted bing cherries, or whatever cherries you like best.
The best part is; you can use fresh or frozen cherries so they’re not just a summer treat. We have a cherry tree so we’re always freezing cherries for smoothies, pies, eating straight-up, and of course for these cherry pierogies!
Cherry Vareniki Ingredients:
Vareniky Dough (use the dough mentioned here)
1 lb pitted cherries (fresh, or frozen/partially thawed)
1/2 cup sugar (1/4 tsp per each dough round)
1/2 Tbsp salt (for the water)
How to make Cherry Vareniki:
1. Cut out dough rounds that are 2 to 3″ in diameter. You want to put 1/4 teaspoon sugar in the center of your cut-out dough round. Place cherries on top of the sugar. Fold the sides together and pinch together to make a tight seal.
(or) To make the cherry pelmeni:
Use 1/8 tsp sugar and 1 cherry. You can also make the dough rounds slightly smaller (about 2 inches). Fold the two sides of the dough together and pinch to make a tight seal. Then fold the two corners together to make a “diaper” shape. Place them on a floured cutting board until ready to cook.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. As you finish the first batch of pierogi, place them in boiling water. After they float to the top, cook about 2 to 3 minutes more, then remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
3. Sprinkle the pierogi with sugar to keep them from sticking together. Serve right away with sour cream or eat them as is.
Click Here for the Basic Pierogi Dough Recipe
Cherry Vareniki (Cherry Pierogi)
Ingredients
Instructions
How to make Cherry Vareniki:
- Cut out dough rounds that are 2 to 3″ in diameter. You want to put 1/4 teaspoon sugar in the center of your cut-out dough round. Place cherries on top of the sugar. Fold the sides together and pinch together to make a tight seal.
How to make the cherry pelmeni:
- Use 1/8 tsp sugar and 1 cherry. You can also make the dough rounds slightly smaller (about 2 inches). Fold the two sides of the dough together and pinch to make a tight seal. Then fold the two corners together to make a "diaper" shape.
- Place them on a floured cutting board until ready to cook.
- Add 1/2 Tbsp of salt to approximately 4 quarts of water and bring it to a boil. As you finish the first batch of pierogies, place them in boiling water. After they float to the top, cook about 2 to 3 minutes more, then remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
- Sprinkle the pierogies with sugar to keep them from sticking together. Serve right away with sour cream or eat them as is.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
My Mom’s grandmother made cherry Varenikis… my mom loved them. My family is Jewish from the Ukraine back in the late 1800s/early 1900s. My mom told me that the cherry varenikas were so delicious. Yours look amazing!! Thank you for posting your recipe! 🙂
You’re so welcome. I hope this becomes your new favorite recipe!
I just made these today and they are incredibly good !!! I can’t wait to try them with different fruit filling !
Thanks for a great recipe !
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Susan!
Dear Natasha, I am 83 years old and live in an Independent living facility in Florida. Our latest assignment in our Creative Writing class is to write what we remember when we were 5 years old. I am writing about how my mother used to make cherry vereniki using cherries from a neighbor’s tree. Was delighted to read your blog and your recipe. Wish I was able to taste those goodies once again!
Sounds like a good plan, Adele! Thank you for sharing and I hope you can personally try this recipe soon.
Can you deep fry the different kinds of pierogi?
I do this at times w the store bought ones?
Hi Georgie! I haven’t tested that to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Being stuck inside, I now have all the time in the world! I used to make these with my mama using the canned cherries, we’d drain them and use the cherries. Once they were cooked, we’d put a little of the cherry juice on top and sprinkle with sugar! So yummy!
That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing that with me, Alina!
This was great thanks for sharing this recipie!!!
You’re welcome, Kathy! I’m so glad you enjoyed that.
I’ve had them once in Kyiv and loved them! 🙂 I was curious to know if you can bake them instead of boiling?
Hi Nathalie, I haven’t tried baking that so I can’t advise without testing it
Thank you Natasha! I love having easy access to the foods of my roots. My Baba and I would make these when I was a kid. I can’t wait to try your recipe!
I love that! Thank you for sharing this with me, Chantal!
Estou amando essas suas sugestões de recheios para o perohê / pierogi. Vi em outras receitas você utilizando frutas vermelhas, aqui no Brasil elas são muito caras 🙁 quase não compramos. Ansiosa por mais variedades de recheios, aqui sempre comi de feijão preto, batata doce com queijo, batata com cebolinha e ricota e recheado com repolho azedo, e os molhos branco ou de tomates.
I love your filling ideas also! thanks for sharing! 🙂
Is it possible Natasha to translate this to English please?
My friend at work is from Azerbaijan and grew up eating these as a kid. Hard to find in the USA so I made this recipe for her birthday and she said they taste just like her mom’s. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear she enjoyed the recipe!! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha, should the dough be really elastic? I cut out a circle and it gets real small? Too much flour or not enough?
Hi Tanya, it sounds like maybe too much flour. Did you knead it per the recipe?
Question for you Natasha,
have you tried vareniki with cherry using Poltavian vareniki recipe?
My grandmom used to make them. It is on steam. Did your parents used to make it or not? Or maybe you will try to make it and post recipe?
thanks
I’m not sure I’ve ever tried those but from a quick search (there really aren’t any recipes easily available online) but they do look good in pictures! If I come across a great recipe, I will be sure to share 🙂
those vareniki on steam they’re delicious especially with strawberry. But the problem is that my grandmother is no longer alive and I do not know who to ask…
Hi !
I just watched a video on YouTube yesterday where the lady steamed the dumplings instead of boiling them. The channel is called Food Around the World on YouTube. I’d send you the link, but I’m not sure how to do that. Basically you make them as per this recipe, but just steam them in a steamer pot( regular pot with a colander set above the water& covered with a lid, instead of boiling them.
My grma used to make a sauce out of the pits (there’s always some flesh left on them). She’d cook the pits with some sugar and add some starch to make it thicker. Pour over pierogies as a sauce and enjoy the even more pronounced cherry taste 😉
Wow that is very creative and economical! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi! How many veriniki does this recipe yield? And how many cherries in each?
Thanks!
Hi Julia, it depends on how large your cherries are – I would say 2 to 3 in each. I probably should have counted them but I didn’t! I would say between 50 and 75 vareniki.
Can I use canned cherries?
Yes, just be sure to drain the juice or they will be ver difficult to seal.
Привет Наташа,
Спасибо – ваши фотографии хорошо!
From your experience, how do cooked ones keep overnight in the fridge? Or do you only recommend freshly boiled ones for serving?
I would definitely recommend freshly boiled ones for serving. The only way I like to eat reheated vareniki is to saute them on a skillet but that really only works for the savory ones. They toughen up in the fridge and they just aren’t the same.
“pierogies” is not the plural form of its singular form, pieróg. The correct plural for would be “pierogi”. FYI.
Thanks David! 🙂
My mother added browned butter and sugar to the vereniki so they wouldn’t stick and served with soft cream too. Try it. She used blueberries too.
Thank you for the tip, I will try that next time :).
Here is an awesome recipe I use to make these. They are made on steam. I’ve tries the water method, but find these much softer and fluffier. Tell me how you like them if you will try it. http://www.tvcook.ru/recipes/vareniki/vareniki-na-paru.html
That does sounds really good! What do you use for steam cooking? Is it a special pot?
Thank you! 🙂
Mommy these sound so delicious right now! I’ve made these with blueberries.. Love them. But now I have a lot of sour cherries, have you ever tried making vareniki with them?
I think they would taste great with sour cherries! Let me know how much you love them 🙂
Nothing says summer better than these scrumptious vareniki!
Thanks Marina 🙂 I couldn’t agree with you more 🙂
Hey there,
Thanks for keeping traditions. Here’s another idea to all your cherry loving followers out there. Add a bit of grated dark chocolate to the finely diced cherries! Check out my blog…yours looks like a nice complimentary one to mine!
Thanks! Keep blogging!
Mmmmmm that sounds so good. I’m definitely a chocolate/cherry lover! 😉
Hello,
This is a wonderful blog!
One question – when not in season, can I use canned cherries?
thank you!
Yes! Make sure to drain them well so you don’t get juice leaking out while your trying to seal them. 🙂
you are best! thank you.
Anytime my friend 🙂
Hi. I’ve been craving these cherry vareniki for a while now. But I cannot find good kind of “vishni” here in the US. They have Cherris which are “chereshnya” in Ukraine. Anyone has a good kind to share.
There are some by the zergut brand that are nice. I have found them at Fred Meyer.
I am not sure where you live, but I know in northern CA where I live we do not have Fred Meyer, I have seen the zergut brand sour pitted cherries (probably the the same ones Natasha mentioned) in Costco at one point. Also most Russian/European stores here carry them. 🙂
We’ve made these cherry pierogi in our family for generations! I had no idea that anyone else made them also. Thought they were my Baba’s creation. Love your site, Natasha! My dad passed away 20 years ago and a lot of the family’s Ukrainian recipes went with him. It’s great to search through yours and walk down memory lane! Thank you!
I’m so glad the blog brings back sweet memories for you 🙂
Can this dough be prepared in the bread machine?
I have heard that it can but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t really recommend it. Sorry 🙁
I will try and let you know what happens!
I made a large batch of these — can they be frozen for a couple of days? If so, how do you recommend storing them and freezing? Do you add flour so they do not stick? Thank you again for the fabulous recipe. They are delightful!
Hi Jen. I’ve never frozen the cherry ones but I don’t see why not. Yes, dust generously with flour, lay them out on a cutting board and freeze them on the top shelf of your freezer until they are frozen, then transfer them to large ziploc bags and dust with a little more flour. They can be frozen for at least a month. Hope that helps.
Privyet Natasha!
I have been looking for a Russian/Ukrainian recipe to make for my daughter’s Christmas around the world event next week. These look wonderful. Do you think kids would enjoy them?
Also, do you think you could substitute sour cherry preserves as a filling?
Thank you for your beautiful, informative site!
To be very honest, they are time consuming and can be messy for kids. It might be a better idea to serve them at home. Yes they are very yummy though! Russian tea cakes are a fun recipe that works well for Christmas. I have those posted a well. Hope that helps. You can substitute, just add a little more sugar.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I really do appreciate it. Perhaps I will try the cake instead for the kids.
they not suppost to look like PELMENI don’t fold them by round! VARENIKI must have shape as half moon wavy pinched together by the half circle side. That way they bigger and joicy as well… 🙂
here is pictures how they suppost to look like:
http://gotovim-doma.ru/view.php?r=166-recept-Vareniki-s-vishnei
I made them both ways. They were easier to make as pelmeni toward the end so that’s what I did. I found they taste just as good, but are easier to make. You can make them either way.
I love these with tvorog/sweet cheese fiiling, do you by any chance have a recipe for a filling like that for varenuki?
Thank you very much for recipe, very very tasty
You are very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. You have an awesome name by the way!
love this site! 🙂
Natasha,
Thank You, my mom passed a year ago, and now I am ready to make them myself. I just needed to make sure there wasn’t anything more inside the verenyks i needed. I do remember my mom put 1 t. vanilla topioco pudding inside of them. But for sure, they are soooo yummy.
Again, thank you and Merry Christmas.
mary
I usually just add cherries and sugar but tapioca sounds like a very good idea. Thank you!
These look so good. I have to try your recipe. I grew up on vareniki and just recently made my first batch! My kids were all over them. I did healthify the original recipe. If you want to check it out, here is a link. http://cuceesprouts.com/2010/09/vareniki/ Looking forward reading more of your recipes 🙂
This brings back memories……..I haven’t had these for such a long time. I think when I was very small and my Baba was around. I’m for sure going to make these soon……..they also were my Mom’s favourite. Thanks you for sharing this recipe. 🙂
You are very welcome. I hope they taste just the way you remember them.
They are very good; best when fresh. I make it with blueberries the same way too, they are just harder to work with because they are small.
YUM! I’ve learned potatoes…now have to try this 🙂 Actually never tried w/ cherries.