This is a nostalgic food for me, they remind me of my Aunt Helen (maybe the best cook I ever new) who would make these for camping trips when I was a kid. They make the perfect camping or picnic food! My mom still makes them sometimes, but we’ve never really had a name for them. The other day when I was planning recipes for this week of potluck/picnic style foods I was thinking about these buns and thought I might name them “Aunt Helen’s Beef Rolls”. Without a name for them they were kinda’ hard to research, but once I did I realized they are pretty popular and have many names like Runzas, Bierocks, Kraut Bierok, Nebraska Runzas, burger buns, beefy rolls, cabbage and beef rolls, buns of beef….okay, we might have made some of those up, but I’m still a bit confused and not sure what to call them?! They are most likely German, or possibly Russian…? I don’t know, but I do know they are very YUMMY, and like me I think they bring back good memories of grandmas and aunts for lots of folks! In fact, I was reading comments on another blog about these “beefy buns”, and one reader said their grandma called them “42’s” because she had to make 42 of them to feed her family of 11… WHOA!! Don’cha just love food that conjures up fond memories!
Anyway, here is my version of whatever you want to call it…
I thought this was a great recipe to end our summer kick off of potluck/picnic foods. If you missed the other recipes from this week, here they are: Chicken Bacon and Ranch Pasta Salad, Fresh Raspberry Dessert Bars, Chicken Salad Wraps, and Easy Potluck Corn Salad.
For the filling you will need: 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of ground beef, 1/2 of a head of cabbage chopped up (about 5 cups), one large yellow onion chopped up, 1 whole head of garlic minced, 1 tablespoon beef bullion or beef base, 1/2 tsp seasoning salt and ground pepper to taste.
Put the ground beef, cabbage, onion, garlic and beef bullion in a big pot or skillet and brown the ground beef on medium heat.
When the beef is browned and the cabbage and onion are cooked, drain the liquid off. Now add the seasoning salt and a little pepper, give it a taste and see if it needs more salt or pepper. When your satisfied with the filling, put it in the fridge to cool. You will want the filling completely cooled before assembling the rolls.
This is what you will need for the bread dough: 1 cup of warm water, 1 Tablespoon yeast, 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon of sugar, 1/4 cup butter cut into small pieces, 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1 egg, 1 cup whole wheat flour and 4 cups all purpose flour plus a little more for sprinkling.
Step 1: Dissolve 1 tablespoon of yeast in 1 cup of warm tap water (105 to 110 degrees) with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Let it sit for about 10 min. It should get bubbly which means your yeast is working.
Step 2: In a microwave safe bowl put 1/4 cup of butter (cut into small pieces) 1/4 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of milk. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. The butter should be mostly melted.
Step 3: Place the melted butter, sugar and milk mixture in a mixing blow. Add 1/2 of a tablespoon of salt, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, one egg and stir well.
Step 4: Add the yeast mixture to the mixing bowl and stir well. Keep stirring and add a couple more cups of flour. This is were I change the paddle to the dough hook on my mixer. Keep mixing while you add the last two cups of flour. Let the dough hook knead the dough until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Step 5: Scrape the dough off the dough hook and plop the dough out on a floured surface. Knead it just a few times to bring it all together and form a nice ball. Place the dough back in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise. It will take around an hour to double in size.
Now gather your cooled filling and raised dough:
This will make 16 rolls, or buns, or beefy buns, or buns of burger, (or whatever)…. so you”ll need to punch your dough down and knead it a couple times to get all the air bubbles out. Then cut your ball of dough in half and keep halving each half until you get 16 pieces.
Roll out each piece of dough and place a heaping 1/3 cup of filling in the center…
I added a little cheddar cheese to some of them. Oh yeah, I can get a little reckless sometimes!
Grab the edges of the dough and bring them together over the top on the filling and pinch the edges together. Place them pinched side down on a cookie sheet. I put 8 rolls on each parchment lined cookie sheet. You don’t want them to touch when they are rising or especially baking. If there’s contact they’ll stick together and tear open losing the yummy filling when you try to separate them.
Let them rise in a warm place for about a half hour then bake them at 375° for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- For the filling:
- 1½ to 2 pounds of ground beef
- ½ of a head of cabbage chopped into small pieces (about 5 cups)
- 1 large onion chopped into small pieces
- 1 whole head of garlic, minced (4 to 6 cloves)
- 1 tablespoon beef bullion or beef base
- ½ teaspoon seasoning salt
- ground pepper to taste
- For the Bread:
- 1 tablespoon of yeast (one packet will work too)
- 1 cup of warm water (105 to 110 degrees)
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ cup of butter cut into small pieces
- ¾ cup of milk
- 1 egg
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 4 to 4½ cups all purpose flour
- For the filling:
- Put the ground beef, cabbage, onion, garlic and beef bullion in a large pot or skillet
- On medium heat cook until the beef is browned and the cabbage and onion is cooked.
- Drain and discard the liquid.
- Stir the seasoning salt and pepper into the ground beef mixture and give it a taste, add more salt or pepper if needed.
- Put the filling in the fridge to cool while you make the bread.
- For the bread:
- Dissolve 1 tablespoon of yeast in 1 cup of warm tap water (105 to 110 degrees) with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
- In a microwave safe bowl put ¼ cup of butter (cut into small pieces) ¼ cup of sugar and ¾ cups of milk. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes until the butter is mostly melted.
- Place the melted butter, sugar and milk mixture into a mixing bowl and add the salt, egg and cup of whole wheat flour. Stir well.
- Add the yeast mixture to the mixing bowl and stir well. (change to a dough hook on the mixer) Now add the flour stirring will between each cup until the dough pulls away from the edges of the mixer and sticks to the dough hook. This will happen somewhere around 4 cups of flour.
- Scrape the dough off the dough hook and plop it onto a well floured surface. Knead it just a couple times to make a nice, smooth ball. Place it back into the mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place to let it rise.
- When the dough has doubled in size and the filling is cool, punch down the dough and knead it a couple times.
- Cut the dough in half then divide each half evenly into 8 pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough out and place a heaping ⅓ cup of filling in the center of the rolled out dough.
- Grab the edges of the dough and bring them together over the top of the filling and pinch the edges together.
- Place rolls pinched side down on a parchment covered cookie sheet.
- Don't put them to close together you don't want them to touch while they rise and bake.
- Let them rise in a warm place for about a half hour.
- Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Place on a rack to cool.
Note – I use 2 pounds of ground beef because that’s how our beef is packaged and I end up with over a cup of extra filling (somehow it never goes to waste). I think using a pound and a half would probably make it come out just right!
Jodi
Love this recipe! Can I please ask a favor though. I can barely see the font due to it being so light. I can’t see a way to darken it. Do you know anything? Thanks!
sufficientacres@gmail.com
Thanks Jodi, You are not the first one to say this font is a little hard to read. I’m going to TRY to change the font, so we don’t have this problem. Thanks for letting us know!