Dessert Pierogies: Schwarzwälder KirschPieroggen -- Black Forest Pierogies

Black Forest Pierogies

Friends, I have been continuing in my efforts to make mozzarella using culture, but I have come to the conclusion that the culture I am trying to use must be dead.  The ph of my whey just will not change.  Nevertheless, my most recent failure left me with a ton of fresh ricotta and that, just the day before we were to have a dozen family members over for dinner.  What does one do with half a kilo of fresh ricotta?  Why, make cannoli, obviously.  Except, I didn't have cannoli rollers.  So I did the next best thing, I made pierogies stuffed with a cannoli-style filling and I fried them crispy.

But while I was making the pierogies, didn't a murder of crows settle down over my parent's cherry orchard and start to lunch on the fruit?  Fresh cherries, I thinks, they will go mighty fine with my pierogies.  So cannoli-filling in pierogies I marry with cherry compote, whipping cream, and dark chocolate in an unholy alliance that brings together all the best of cannoli, all the best of Poland, and black forest cake: Schwarzwälder KirschPieroggen.  

Pierogi/Cannoli Filling

Zest of 2 lemons
400g of ricotta (homemade, but the equivalent of 2 containers of strained ricotta)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate
2 tbsps maple sugar (granulated)

Mix together, set aside.

Pierogi Dough


4 cups flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted lard or oil (obviously I used lard)
1 cup hot water

Put your water on the boil.  Mix together the flour and salt.  Whip the egg together with the fat until emulsified.  Add the egg to the flour mixture and work in well.  Add water slowly, incorporating it slowly until you've a fine non-sticky ball of pastry.  Let sit 30 mins to relax.  

Roll, cut circles, stuff, fold into half-moons.  Don't forget to pinch and crimp the edges.  Just pressing them together is a good way to lose your filling.

Set them aside on parchment paper until you're ready to fry or boil them.

  

Cherries about to be lit on FIRE

Cherry Compote

2 cups fresh picked maraschino cherries
2 tbsp drambuie
6 tbsp kirsch
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp wild strawberry jam
2 tsp cornstarch

Flambe the cherries over a high-heat, add the sugar once the flames have subsided.  Mix in that wild strawberry jam, add cornstarch, whisk rapidly over a high heat for 5 mins and reduce to simmer for 5 more minutes.  

Finish with whipping and coarse chopped dark chocolate