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This is one of my specialties. I no longer really have a recipe for filling, I don't have proportions, it's all to taste, but the filling is:

Mashed potatoes
Well aged sharp Cheddar cheese
Finely minced caramelized onions
Finely minced Garlic
Salt and Pepper

Make this the night before and chill it in the fridge because it's easier to work with.

The next day, make your dough. The dough is thus:

5 cups flour
couple pinches of salt ( I THINK the recipie calls for a teaspoon)
1 egg
1 cup water
Oil.

What you do is mix your dry in a big bowl, and then crack the egg into a measuring cup. Mix the egg around some, then add enough oil to make one cup. Add your egg and oil mixture along with the cup of water to your dry ingredients and work it until it's smooth and doughy. Add extra water or oil if needed.

Let this stand for half an hour covered with a tea towel, and then break a piece out and roll it out. Roll the dough until just before you can see the table through it.

Cut your circles (or squares if you are conserving the dough), I use a wine glass for this and then peel all the excess dough and put it in a pile (more on this later). Peel each circle, put it in the palm of your hand shiny side up (that would be the side that had been stuck to your table) and put a small amount of filling in the middle of the circle and then pinch the outer edges TIGHT.

Place the completed Perogie on a floured cookie sheet, and once the sheet is covered in Perogies, put them in the freezer till they get nice and firm. Once they are nicely frozen, stick them in an ice cream pail or freezer bag, and take them out when needed.

The dough. DO NOT REUSE THE DOUGH YOU HAVE ROLLED! This is important, the rolled dough does not work well for whatever reason. I am not making this up, this recipie I remember making with my Great Grandmother, a grand old Ukrainian Baba, as well as my grandmother and mother, and this wisdom they have passed to me.

What you can do with the dough, and my family does, is boil it till it floats, drain it and then lightly fry it in butter or oil and use it to keep people from eating your work all day. And this is an all day job. I make usually 25-35 dozen in a day, depending on how early I get to start.

Too cook your perogie, just boil them from frozen until they float and then fry them in some butter and or oil until they are lightly crisped. Serve with baked Kielbasa sausage and some Heavy sour cream (not the non fat or reduced fat, that's just silly).

Now, you, and everyone else here has my family's recipe. This, as I said came from at least my great grandmother, who spoke little English, but still taught me and others how to make these delicious things. I've been doing this since I was...well I was in the single digits. My now 5 year old daughter helps me make them now (and boy does that make me a proud daddy that I could pass this down even further!)

@thepirataeking ! sounds like a good, fool-proof - babushka recipe.....
on my ukrainian mother's side we did these fillings: fried cabbage with bacon, or fried mushrooms & sauerkraut -- and lekvar (which is prune).... i love the good old fashioned potato ones.... and cheese -- they use pot cheese (or farmer's cheese), a little sugar and fresh dill.....
don't forget the onions sauteed in butter on the side. YUM.
great that you're passing it along to your daughter.

I was on a pierogie kick a while back and started experimenting with some dessert variations. I chopped a couple fresh peaches, sprinkled them with a little brown sugar and some Vietnamese cinnamon, and drizzled on a little melted butter and used that as a filling. I've also tried chocolate and banana, which is really good too.

That's 1/2 egg shell of water.

YUM! thanks for all the help, I can't wait to try these out