Crabtree-Style Krautburgers

Krautburgers are a staple in our house.  All four of us greatly enjoy them… I’m sure my thighs don’t, but all in all they aren’t too bad for us.. and because I make them myself, I at least know what is in them!  I do not have a particular recipe that I follow.. it’s kind of like “a little bit of this”, “a little bit of that”, “today I want more of this”, “I think it needs to be spicier today”, “I want them super cheesy tonight”, etc.  It’s very mood related for me.

Everyone has their own preference on dough, so today I’m not going to share the dough part with you.  (Dough and bread will be a whooooole different blog post!  LOL)  There are many ways you can prep your dough for krautburgers… either from scratch, using a pre-made pizza type dough, pop-open can biscuits.. whatever you prefer.  In our house, we try to cook as many parts as possible, so I make my own.  I started the dough mixture several hours before putting together all the insides so it had plenty of time to rise by the time I was ready to start cooking.

Dough is rising, so…. here we go!!!!!

Step 1: Dice up the onion, jalapeños and green cabbage (not shown in the pic because I forgot to take another photo!)  Even though I was after a little bit of spice today, the one jalapeño wasn’t quite enough.  Next time I’ll add two or three.

Step 2:  While I was chopping, I was browning my ground beef at the same time.  Ha.. and they say multi-tasking can’t be done!

Brown the ground beef

Step 3: Throw all the chopped stuff in a large bowl, as well as cheese.  All of the cheese.  As much cheese as you can get away with.  (YES.. I like cheese!)  On a normal krautburger day, I use mozzarella.. and while I like to shred my own cheese because they put weird stuff on it in the package to keep it from sticking together.. today I didn’t have a lot of extra time and pre-shredded mozzarella won out.  You do what you gotta do, right?!

Step 4:  Once the ground beef is browned and drained on paper towels, mix it in the large bowl with the other ingredients and combine well.  I also add a few dashes of salt and pepper.  And maybe another handful of cheese.

All mixed together

Step 5:  (Here’s that pesky little personal-prefence-dough step.)  Taking small clumps of dough, I roll it out.  I’m not a perfectionist so each one doesn’t have to be the same size/shape/diameter.  Generally, they do end up being a similar size, even tho this time around I was extremely irritated with my rolling pin because even after flouring it after every roll-out, my dough pieces kept sticking to the pin.

Rolled out dough

Step 6: After I have the size I’m ok with, I use a 1/3 measuring cup, to scoop the goods right into the middle of the dough.. twice.  The second scoop I try to squish more into the cup before dumping it on the dough.  It needs to be compact just enough so it fills the inside of the baked dough but not too little so the dough falls and not too much so the inside of the goods is cold.  It needs to be just right… yes, just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it needs to be just right.  🙂

Cabbage mixture added

Step 7: I have a small cup with water in it so using the tips of my fingers I brush water around the outside edges and then fold the sides over the mixture.  The water makes a nice, subtle paste which holds the krautburger together.

Sides folded over

Step 8: After placing as many krautburgers that will fit, seam side down on a greased pan, they go into a 375 degree oven.  (Sorry, I forgot that picture too!!)  After 7 minutes, I pull them out, brush all the tops with melted butter and put them back in for additional time.  Usually about 12-13 minutes.  It is completely varied on oven efficiencies, altitude, thickness of rolled-dough, etc.

Into the oven

Step 9: Once preferred doneness has occurred, I place them on a wire rack so they cool for a few minutes… that’s usually as long as they last before family members start grabbing and chowing down.

Cooling on a wire rack

IF there are any leftovers, they are easily reheated for midnight snacks or even breakfast.  Not that I would know…. 😉

Thank you for reading about my krautburger shenanigans.  I would love to know if you try it or if you already have a krautburger recipe of your own.  I am always up for trying something different and/or making some changes.

Stayed tuned for more recipes, teenage boy antics, or birdwatching stories (which is really chicken watching tales!) lol

Cheers!!  The Hobbyless Brewer’s Wife