Cherry Perogies

 

I've been having the most uncontrollable craving for cherry stuffed perogies, topped with sour cream and sugar!

About a year ago I used my grandmother’s recipe and bluntly subbed Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour and Xanthan Gum for regular flour. The result was eh ok but not quite the same. I couldn’t get the dough the right consistency. This time I’m “experimenting” for the first time with a flour substitute called cup4cup. It promises to be the perfect gluten free alternative for traditional flour and can be substituted literally cup for cup.

The Original Recipe:

 

Dough 

3 Cups flour
2/3 cup water
1 egg
Salt to taste

Stuffing

Pitted Cherries


Mix flour, water, egg and salt in to a firm dough. Cover with a towel and let stand 30 to 40 minutes. Roll, cut, stuff, cook and eat :) Easy right?

Gluten Free Recipe

Dough

3 Cups cup4cup flour
1 1/2 cup water
1 egg
Salt to taste

Stuffing

Trader Joes’s Dark Morello Cherries

     When mixing the dough I ran in to a problem: the 2/3 cup water was not nearly enough. I had to add water till dough was the right consistency. Educated guess about 1 ½ . On the plus side the cup4cup flour feels and looks like real flour.

 

      After the 40 minute rest period, I rolled the dough in to a thick sheet, using a large glass cut out the perogie rounds. Stuffed each with two cherries ( if your rounds are bigger, more cherries) and pinched them shut. The dough seems to dry out very quickly, I had to wet the inside edges of the rounds in order to get them to stick. 

      Cook in boiling water till they float. 

      Serve with sour cream and sugar!

 

Serves: about 7

Calories per serving:  294 (sour cream and sugar will add more calories, but you knew that)

Taste factor: Almost like Grandma's

Texture factor: Are you sure this is GF?

Note: This made about 56 perogies. You don’t have to cook them all at once. I cooked 10 and froze the rest for later.

Many have eaten here, few have died.

  Why am I doing this?

      I am a Russian-Jew; to us food is a religion and eating an Olympic sport. To refuse food is an insult tantamount to sacrilege and to be honest quite impossible. If the tantalizing smells don’t get you, the thick layer of guilt will. 

I have been a vegetarian since the age of 11 and in October of 2011 I was diagnosed with wheat and gluten intolerance. In addition to not being able to eat meat and fish, I had to give up a lot of very delicious and some very basic things. After a few weeks of salads and chick peas (and many fits) I had decided to turn this negative into a positive. To channel the many generations of family cooks who came before me and see if I can fined a way around this pesky vegetarian-gluten-free problem. I have made it my mission to take old family recipes (some new ones) and try to make them like Grandma did, but with out the things I can't eat. Every time my kitchen experiment worked, in my excitement I would post “food photos” to Facebook. Since I don't want to be "that person" and spam my time line and my friends feed with food pics. I have decided to be that other person and start a food blog. You know the Russian-Jewish-Gluten-Free-Vegetarian blog.  

To be honest this is more for me, to have a record of recipes and ingredients (and maybe some controlled feed back). If this helps someone, or makes someone’s family diner a safer and enjoyable place, it’s a bonus. All recopies will be tested on yours truly, current boyfriends and other people loitering in my apartment. 

Please cook, try and let me know what you think! (For the healthy counties people I’ll add calorie counts.)