Pierogi dough recipe (original) - traditional Polish recipes

Pour 3 cups of wheat flour into the bowl. Pour the flour through a sieve to separate any lumps and in order to aerate the flour. Thanks to the latter, your pierogi dough will be softer and more delicate in flavor. Then add half a teaspoon of salt.Pour 0.75 of cup of boiling water into the bowl, while vigorously stirring the mixture with a fork or wooden spoon. At this stage, it is normal that lumps of flour will form and surface – crumble them down with the fork. Cover the bowl with a cotton cloth and set aside for about 5 minutes.After 5 min, add a quarter of a cup of cold water, give it a stir, and crumble down the lumps (if any). Once again cover the pierogi dough with a cotton cloth, but this time set is aside for 15 minutes.After 15 min, add half a teaspoon of vegetable oil (canola, sunflower or olive oil). Roll up your sleeves – it's time for some work. Knead the pierogi dough until it becomes a smooth and uniform mass. In general, it takes 5 to 10 minutes, and at this stage a pair of men's hands may be quite useful. When finished, the pierogi dough should be homogeneous, stretchy and a bit adhesive.Now, the dough is ready to prepare pierogi. Roll out the dough on a pastry board (or simply on a table) until you reach the thickness of about one-tenth of an inch (2-3 millimeters). However, before you start rolling it out, you should flour the pastry board. Thanks to that the pierogi dough won't adhere or tear. However, remember that one side of the dough should remain clean. You want it to cling on to itself while folding pierogi.Cut circles out of the pierogi dough by using a cup. Place the filling in the middle of every circle and fold it to form pierogi.Collect scraps of pierogi dough, knead again, roll out and repeat steps 5-7.