My Kitchen My World - Germany

This week's My Kitchen My World destination was chosen by Roxanne of Roxanne's Road Rules - we're going to Germany! When I saw that this week's country was Germany, I knew exactly what recipe I wanted to make. I was given this recipe a couple of years ago by a good friend. We had these "German Hamburgers" at her house once, and I requested the recipe. Then I never made it! So I knew that this week I had the perfect excuse and was very excited for the chance to have these delicious meat pockets again. I was also excited because we were hanging out at my parents' house, and that means there were many more people there to elicit compliments from!


I know I've mentioned more than once that I love fast easy recipes. But I also don't mind recipes that take a long time and a bit more effort, as long as I plan ahead for them. This isn't a fast recipe - the dough rises for four hours, so it does take some planning ahead. But don't let that stop you from trying this recipe - these were so delicious!

I one-and-a-halfed the recipe to make sure there were enough runzas for the ten of us. We ended up with 28 runzas, more than enough.


Runzas (German Hamburgers)
Dough:
2 cups warm water
4 tsp. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter or oil
5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups flour

Mix water, yeast, sugar, and salt until dissolved. Add egg and butter. Stir in flour. At this point the dough will seem very sticky. That's okay. Refrigerate for four hours. The dough rises in the fridge and gets very stretchy and really cool!

Near the end of the four hours, start the hamburger filling.
Hamburger filling:
1 1/2 lb. hamburger
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Dash hot sauce

Brown hamburger and onion; drain grease. Add cabbage and remaining ingredients. Simmer 15 minutes and cool a bit.

Remove dough from fridge and roll into oblong shape, 1/4 inch thick (use plenty of flour and you shouldn't have too much problem with it sticking. Plenty of flour). Cut into squares, you should get about 18 or so. Spoon in hamburger filling and pinch together the sides. I was able to fit about 1/4 cup of filling in each square - this dough stretches really well and can hold more filling than you might think.

Place runzas on greased baking sheets. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.


These tasted great with ketchup! But I have to admit, it was a bit unnerving to eat these with my younger sister at the table. She decided to dress up as a murdered gypsy for Halloween last night, and her costume was a bit on the gruesome side...


On that lovely note, check out what the other MKMW members did this week!