Vareniki is a simple but very tasty dish that is popular with both adults and children. You can use potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, cottage cheese, a variety of fruits or berries as a filling, and in order for the dish to turn out as tasty as possible, you need to remember some secrets and rules during cooking.
Dough for dumplings
In order for the dumplings to stick easily and not fall apart during cooking, the dough for them must be elastic. It is best to mix it with ice water. The classic recipe typically uses higher flour, cold water, salt, and an egg. You can exclude the egg, but the flour in this case must be from durum wheat. Some housewives use kefir for making dough, while others like choux pastry dumplings. If you use sweet cottage cheese or berries as the filling, you can use milk instead of water to make the dough more tender. For any recipe, the flour must be sieved to saturate it with oxygen.
The elasticity of the dough is given by a small amount of vegetable oil; for best results, the dough must be kneaded for at least 10 minutes, and then it must rest for half an hour.
Filling for dumplings
Dumplings can be sweet, salty, and sour. The potato filling can be flavored with garlic, peppers, mushrooms, or lard-fried onions. Greens go well with potatoes - fresh or dried. It is advisable to spread the potato filling warm, and not hot.
It is advisable to add yolks to the curd - they improve the taste and make the texture more tender.
Starch should be added to the berry filling as a link for the juice.
How to make dumplings
As in the case with many beloved dumplings, the dough for dumplings must be rolled out, and then cut out into circles using a glass or mold. The filling is laid out in circles, and the edges are carefully pinched. Dumplings should look like crescents - this is the traditional form for this dish. To make the edges easier to pinch, they can be greased with egg white or water. Usually the edges are slightly thinner than the rest of the dough.
If the filling is berry, the edges must be wrapped inward to get a carved edging, this ensures that the juice does not leak out during cooking. Also, for berry fillings, the dough should be slightly thicker than for dry ones.
How to cook dumplings
The best way to boil the dumplings is in a large saucepan, so there is enough space. As a rule, 3-4 minutes is enough for the dish to be ready. Usually dumplings float to the surface of the water, when they are ready, you need to get them out with a slotted spoon.
