Several readers have asked about gluten-free pierogi dough recently, so I’ve been wanting to try this for weeks.
Pierogi are such an important part of Polish cuisine. They are the epitome of Polish comfort food. To give them up for your health, to abstain when the rest of the family is enjoying the iconic dumpling would be sad indeed!
I understand why you would want to make gluten-free pierogi dough for yourself or a loved one. I get it!
What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in most grains. As the dough is worked gluten strands develop a structure that allows the dough to become elastic and stretch. The more gluten, the chewier the end product.
This is why some recipes, such as a delicate cake or muffin recipe will caution about overworking the batter. Chewy might be good for a chocolate chip cookie, but not for a cake. Bread flour is higher in gluten than cake flour.
Working with gluten-free flours
Gluten-free flours are made from things other than grains. Common sources include nuts, legumes, and coconut among other things. This site has a nice list of gluten-free flours, suggested uses, and their nutritional value.
I grabbed a bag of gluten-free cassava flour, not knowing what it was. I now see that it’s related to tapioca. They both come from the yuca root.
Trying to roll our the cassava flour dough was similar to making the gluten-free biscotti my daughter and I included in our home bakery line up years ago. It wanted to crack, tear, and crumble.
Using gluten-free flour is frustrating. It makes you realize the vital role gluten plays in making pasta or baked goods. I wish I had a magic tip to share that would make it easier, but I haven’t found it yet.
I usually roll pierogi dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch or 3 mm, but I couldn’t do that with this gluten-free pierogi dough. It would tear as I rolled it, tear as I tried, ever so carefully, to remove it from the counter. I had to work with the dough thicker, closer to 1/4 inch.
Pierogi Queen cutting board – click on photo to buy from the Polish Shirt Store!
Even then, as I folded the thicker dough around my scant filling (and it had to be scant because I knew I couldn’t stretch and pull the dough over a generous amount of filling), the dough cracked in many places. I just tried to smooth them back together and began to worry that this temperamental dough would disintegrate in boiling water.
Would it hold together? Should I steam them instead? I decided to only risk one of my labor-intensive gluten-free pierogi in barely simmering water.
I worried for nothing. They were fine in boiling water and perhaps held together better than my usual pierogi.
I used a mushroom filling because, silly me, I had intended to make gluten-free uszka (the little ears pierogi folded into an unusual shape), but folding these twice, in two different directions, seemed like too much stress. I’ll mix up one of my usual pierogi doughs for the remainder of the filling to become uszka to go along with the beet zakwas I have fermenting on the kitchen counter.
After I’d finished my small batch of GF mushroom pierogi by browning in butter and topping with caramelized diced onion, Ed and I each tried one. We agreed that the flavor was nice. The dough was too thick in proportion to the filling, but if you haven’t ever had pierogi or you haven’t had them in a long time, that might not matter.
The remainder of our GF pierogi is going to Ed’s young friend and former colleague who has to eat a gluten-free diet. He is very excited to try them.
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I’ll close by saying that if someone makes gluten-free pierogi for you, they love you. They love you a lot, and you owe thank many, many thanks.
Smacznego!
Lois
If you’re looking for gluten-free recipes, I do have a few others on my website, although most are not Polish.
Looking for pierogi filling ideas? How about these gluten-free filling options?
Ruskie – the classic potato and cheese
Mixed berry filling (just be sure to use GF bread crumbs)
Print
Gluten-Free Pierogi Dough
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 pierogi 1x
- Category: side dish
- Method: cooking
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
Try this gluten-free pierogi dough with your favorite GF flour and any filling.
Ingredients
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (120 g)
2/3 cup milk (160 ml)
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (300 – 350 g, depending on your flour)
your favorite pierogi filling
Instructions
- Whisk together the yogurt, milk, egg, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the GF flour, and mix until well combined in one mass. Cover the dough and set aside while you prepare your filling.
- Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Sprinkle some of your GF flour on the work surface and roll out the dough one piece at a time. Roll to a thickness of 1/8 – 1/4 inch. Cut into 3-inch circles. Add a small amount of the filling to each circle. Fold the circle in half around the dough and crimp the edges to seal.
- The dough will crack as you do this. Simply smooth out the cracks and carry on. Set the pierogi so that they’re not touching and continue to repeat the process with all 4 pieces. You can re-roll the scraps if you have enough filling for them.
- Gently place the pierogi in simmering, salted water. They should cook until they float to the top of the water. You may want to gently move them to be sure they’re not stuck to the bottom or to each other. You’ll want to cook them in batches to be sure they’re not crowded while in the water. The number of batches or the number of pierogi will depend on the size of your pan. I was using a small saucepan and only cooked 4 at a time. As you remove them from the pan, again, make sure they’re not touching.
- At this point, you can serve the pierogi. I prefer to saute them in butter, and I think the texture of the GF dough benefits from that. The bottom side of the boiled pierogi felt a little gelatinous before the second cooking in butter.
Notes
Popular garnishes – caramelized diced onion, sour cream, bacon bits. For sweet pierogi, sprinkle with powdered sugar, cinnamon, possibly serve with sour cream with a bit of brown sugar stirred in.
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Linda Grape
I make them with brown rice flour and tapioca though you can also just make them with just tapioca. Its the same recipe that I use for homemade pasta – It takes less than 5 min to make the dough.
Barbara Lagowski
This dough is less elastic than traditional doughs but it sealed well and held up to cooking. Thanks! My grandson will enjoy Christmas pierogi with the rest of us.
Ania Johnson
I was wondering if it would be easier to use one of those gluten free one to one flours like Bob’s red mill? It is supposed to replace regular wheat flour. Or is a single grain flour like Cassava good enough?
polishhousewife
I’m sure Bob’s GF would work as well as anything. I just find any GF flour difficult to work with.
Victor Pszczolkowsk Prentiss i
I love your recipe’s but sometimes it’s hard to follow gluten free recipes. If you state Gluen Free Flour it really is useless. There are simply too many types. A brand name and what type or mixture of these flours is important to me. Our daughter has Celiac and I am always looking for a good recipe. Can you send me some info on the exact t flour to use for the perogi recipe please?
polishhousewife
Hi Victor, I understand your frustration. In the body of the post, I mention the GF flour that I used. I’m sure there are others that would be suitable or even better suited to this use, but GF is not my specialty. I welcome your suggestions in that area.
Allison
Victor, I’m not sure where you live, but I also have celiac disease and have had great luck using King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure flour. Hope that helps! I am going to try this recipe with that flour.
Karen
Allison, how did it come out with the King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour?
Therlo
Use Cup4Cup gf flour which is a blend and is elastic and stretchy when rolling dough.
Amber
I have celiac and am polish….and I don’t like the gluten free flours at all. Its kinda heartbreaking to not eat pierogis so I usually deal with the consequences of eating traditional pierogis around Christmas. And Pierniczki as well. I wish gluten free wasn’t so yucky. and I don’t like missing out.
polishhousewife
I can see where it would be heartbreaking. Stay healthy!
Jennifer Craig-Norton
I just made these tonight and they were fantastic! For the flour I mixed 75 gr buckwheat flour and 250gr Bob’s Red Mill. In order to make the dough more extensible, I cut the milk down to 80ml and mixed 80ml water with 1 tsp psyllium powder, mixed well and waited for it to make a gel (about 5 minutes) then mixed the gel with the wet ingredients. For those not familiar with this ingredient, it is really, really useful in GF recipes that involve flour- it’s a bit like a gluten substitute. The resulting dough was smooth, easy to roll thin, easy to handle and shape and kept their shape beautifully while boiling. About 12 years ago, I lived in Gdansk (before I knew I was gluten intolerant) and LOVED eating pierogi. I haven’t had them since and am so excited that I an now make them myself- they tasted just like ‘the real thing’!
Nadine
For those of us forced (ie. celiac disease) to be gluten free, and still want to feast on peirogies, I have found a way to be more successful with this very temperamental dough, I make a little ball of the dough, flatten it very gently between parchment paper in a tortilla press to 1/8”. You get a nice little circle, without rolling or cutting. Then I use a folding dumpling maker. You need to be careful putting in the dough, and filling it. Again, only use very light pressure to seal.
i
Can i make these and freeze them after preparing them and before boiling them and adding to buttered pan? or should i cook them first and then freeze them? My son has celiac and i want to make them for christmas so he can have some with the rest of the I am making them now and wondered what I should do please respond
Lois Britton
I have done both. I find more people freeze after cooking. You can space them out on a pan that will fit in your freezer. Once they’re individually frozen, add to a freezer bag. Boil them again to heat before serving.
Basia Job Packham
psyllium allergy here so we use rice flour to add elasticity to the dough. It also helps to rest gf doughs before rolling them out.