Sweet Potato Pierogie with Shallot Butter

Pierogies have always been a favorite of ours, but we were always more likely to buy the ready made ones than make our own.  Until now…..meet our new favorite pierogi!

In our house, everyone has their favorites, even the dog.

The other day, I took her out for a walk and, as usual, we started across the street at the giant tree where every dog, raccoon, fox, deer, coyote, yeti, ET and unicorn must stop and scent mark.  It is a good five minute sniff-a-thon at minimum.  Until she saw the Fed Ex truck pull into our driveway.

Five thousand cars and trucks can pass her on our “walk” and all they mean to her is the inconvenience of me stopping her from running directly into their path.  I have no idea why she wants to do this, but apparently it is her “thing”.  And in our neighborhood, since every other house is somehow under construction, at least five thousand cars and trucks rumble up our street every hour.

Somehow though, she is able to distinguish the FedEx truck from all the other trucks since inside it resides one of her most favorite people …Milk Bone guy.

Every time we get a delivery, he leaves a forbidden Milk Bone treat on top of the box.  She basically shoves me out of the way as I unlock the door, snakes her head out, grabs the Milk Bone du jour and then runs like a thief into her bed to wolf it down before the evil mommy can take it away from her.  If only she moved that quickly when I tried to give her a banana or blueberry.

As the truck hit the bottom of the driveway, her head snapped up and her nose almost twitched itself off her face trying to smell which flavor Milk Bone he had in his pocket.  Then, ignoring my, “let’s go potty” chant, she took off across the street and up the driveway faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall Fed Ex trucks in a single bound!  I think she actually left skid marks on the road pulling me after her.

Before I had even made it through the doorway, she had downed half the treat and was guarding the rest like it was the Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail and Crown Jewels all wrapped up in one.

So, yes, we all have our favorites in this house…especially the dog.

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 lb total)
• 1 head of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400
2. Cut the top off of the head of garlic and drizzle with a bit of olive oil.  Wrap up in aluminum foil
3. Put the potatoes and garlic into the oven (I recommend putting them on a lined baking sheet as the potatoes tend to get messy) and bake till done (about 25-30 minutes for the garlic and 40 for the potatoes)
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool while you make the dough.
5. When cool enough, remove the skin from the potatoes and squeeze the garlic cloves out of the head.  Mash the two together and add salt and pepper to taste.

Dough:

• 3 cups flour (I used wheat pastry)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of yogurt (keep about another 1/4 cup on hand if needed to make the dough come together)
• 1/3 cup applesauce

Directions:

1. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl, and the yogurt and applesauce in a small bowl.
2. Add the wet to the dry and stir to combine.  If the dough doesn’t seem to be coming together, you can add a bit more yogurt a spoonful at a time. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead till it comes together in a smooth ball.
3. Divide the dough into 24 small balls and roll each ball out into a circle (about 3 1/2 -4 inches in diameter). It doesn’t matter if it isn’t a perfectly round circle since you can fix this when you fold them over.

Shallot butter:

• 1 cup sliced shallots
• 4 Tablespoons butter, divided

Directions:

1. Put the shallots in a medium pan with 2 Tablespoons butter.  Saute over medium low/low heat till the shallots become translucent (about 5-8 minutes).

To make the pierogis:

1. Heat a large pot of water on the stove.
2. Place a spoonful of filling in the center of each circle and hold it in your hand like a taco. Fold up the edges, pinching the dough together tightly,keeping the filling away from where you are pinching the dough closed.  I start at the top and work my way to one side, then go back to the top and work my way to the second side. (I recommend rolling and filling as you go and covering the dough to keep it from drying out).
3. Drop the pierogis a few at a time into the boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes per batch, stirring gently to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom at first. Remove with a slotted spoon and put on a large plate of colander till ready to serve.
4. To serve, there are two options: one is to melt the other 2 Tablespoons of butter in a large pan and lightly fry the pierogis on each side before topping with the shallot butter.  The second is to add the other 2 Tablespoons of butter to the cooked shallots and melt them, then pour over the boiled pierogis without frying them. If you are doing this, I would recommend boiling them a bit longer than 5 minutes so the dough isn’t too chewy.

Enjoy!