The Ultimate Kraut Burgers
From scratch German kraut burgers with a sweet dough, ground beef, cabbage, onion, cheese, and chili pepper filling, baked to golden perfection!
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 2 cups warm water split
- 1 ½ tablespoon yeast
- 5 cups flour* see recipe notes plus 1 teaspoon at a time if needed to decrease stickiness
- ¼ cups olive oil
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅔ cups white sugar
For the Filling
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 cups diced green cabbage
- 2 cups diced yellow onion 1 large onion
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 ½ cups diced jalapeno or chilis optional but adds great flavor
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 6 cups shredded cheddar cheese option to use some aged gouda
- 4 tablespoon melted butter for tops of buns after bake
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Add 1 cup warm water to a small bowl. You want to make sure the water is NOT hot or it can kill the yeast. Add 1 ½ tablespoons yeast and gently mix (use a chopstick). Let sit for about 10 minutes.
- While the yeast is activating, in a separate large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, and 1 more cup warm water. Once you can see that the yeast is activating, add the yeast mixture to your flour mixture and combine all ingredients. I prefer to mix it by hand.
- Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky (about 3-5 minutes). Add 1 teaspoon of additional flour at a time if needed until it's no longer sticky (a bit of stickiness is okay and can be remedied after the rise).
- Form dough into a ball and let sit in bowl covered by a cheesecloth or lid to rise and double in size (about 45 minutes).
Make the Filling
- Dice onion, jalapeno/chilis, cabbage, and shred cheese.
- Heat a large skillet on low-medium heat with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add diced onion, cabbage, 2 lbs. of ground beef, any peppers or chilis, and salt and pepper. Break apart the ground beef to avoid clumping as it cooks. Cook for 10 minutes and then decrease heat to low (covered). If you're skillet isn't big enough you can use a large pot (5 qt.)
- Continue cooking for about 10 more minutes or until meat is cooked and vegetables are softened. Drain excess liquid (saving for other dishes because it's delicious).
Assemble the Kraut Burgers
- Preheat oven to 350℉ using middle rack.
- Melt butter for brushing on top of buns after bake and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Knock down dough and portion into 12 pieces. Take out 1 piece at a time, keeping the remainder in the fridge (they will likely stick back together some).
- Lightly flour work surface to roll out dough.
- Roll out dough ball to about 7" in diameter, keeping edges slightly thinner and the middle thicker. Layer ¼ cup meat mixture, ½ cup cheese, and another ½ cup meat mixture. This ensures that the cheese won't be on the bottom and soak through and make a soggy bottom.
- (See images above in narrative) Pinching dough at opposite sides of the dough, gently stretch the dough and pinch ends together at the center. With one hand pinching the center together, gradually work your way around repeating this process. Once you have sealed off the burger, flip over so seal is face down and gently rock the dough under your palm to seal the burger..
- Place burgers 1 at a time on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until you have 6 burgers to bake at a time.
- Bake at 350℉ for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Keep an eye on them around 20 minutes but you want the bottoms to be browning as well which takes a bit more time. Remove from oven and leave on tray for a 5-10 minutes before transferring to another surface to allow them to reabsorb some moisture.
- Repeat process with remaining 6 dough balls to bake 6 more burgers. Use a second cookie sheet or a pizza stone. I wouldn't recommend using the same cookie sheet as the first batch because you need to let the first batch rest and you don't want to put the 2nd batch on a hot cookie sheet (this would affect the rising and you might get very large and overproved burgers.
- Enjoy with hot sauce.
Notes
For the Flour:
*If using all white flour use 5 ⅓ cup flour.
*Option to use 4 ¼ cup white flour and ¾ cup whole wheat. With this, start with 5 cups flour total and slowly add a tablespoon at a time if needed until no longer sticky.
* It's okay if it's a little sticky before rising, you can easily remedy that after it rises by adding flour to your work surface when rolling it out. You don't want to add too much flour so better safe with adding less up front.
*If you're using a toaster oven to bake these you'll want to start at a higher temp (375℉) for about 5 minutes, then decrease heat and tent with tinfoil if they start to get too brown on the tops. Move rack to lower setting for toaster oven.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!