German Bierocks

I don’t always meal plan, but if I know we have a busy week coming up then I will sit down and plan out what we will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner each night. My mom was always good at this and kept an erasable calendar on the fridge that let us know what to expect for dinner for the next seven days. Kristen at Dine and Dish posted this past Monday what she was making this week. Her meals came from other food bloggers, Real Simple Magazine, Rachael Ray Magazine and her own repertoire. The recipe that caught my eye immediately was the German Bierocks that she found on Delicious! Delicious! who adapted the recipe from Cooking Light.

My grandfather on my dad’s side of the family is from Germany so I always get excited to try out food from my family’s native country. This wasn’t a quick meal by any means, but I read that these do freeze really well so I can justify spending some time to make a dozen of these if I can put half in the freezer for another meal down the road. I knew these would be a hit at my house since it incorporates two of Jim’s favorite things – bread and meat. Here we have the seasoned meat conveniently wrapped into one easy to grab and eat meal.


Ingredients for Dough:
2 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast (I used one pouch of organic active dry yeast)
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
4+ cups bread flour

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm milk.
Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
In a heavy -duty mixer, (which I borrowed from Allyson) combine oil, salt and eggs.
Add yeast mixture. Add 1 cup of flour and beat for 1 minute. Beat in 1/2 cup of flour at a time, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
Switch to dough hook. Knead on low speed, adding remaining flour 1 Tablespoon at a time, until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Place dough in a well-oiled large bowl and loosely cover.

Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Now, lets make the filling. You will need:

1/2 medium-sized onion, chopped

1 lb. ground beef, pork, or turkey (I used turkey)

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 small head of cabbage, shredded (I used a bag of chopped coleslaw with shredded carrots)

salt and pepper, to taste

I also added some left over stuff from the fridge including three shiitake mushroom caps

Slice half an onion. To a hot skillet I added the onions, a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper. Cooked over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile in another saute pan I added the turkey and seasoned with ground cumin, garlic powder, ground thym, onion powder and thinly sliced green onion.

Cook 1 lb of ground turkey over medium high heat.
Thinly slice a few green onion, white and green parts.
Finely chopped shiitake mushroom caps. (I say finely so Jim won't know they are there.)
Oh yeah! After 15 minutes this is what the onions look like!
Now I add all the chopped stuff to the ground turkey, mix well then let it cool.

After an hour I punched down the dough and let it rest for an additional five minutes. Then cut dough in half.
Roll each half into a letter-sized rectangle (roughly 8x11).
Cut each rectangle into 6 squares. Spoon 1/4 cup filling into center of each square.

Bring opposite corners together at the center, pinching corners and seams to seal.

Place seam side down on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. (Mine didn't rise at all)
Bake at 375 until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Serve with grainy mustard. Mine comes from a little German town nearby, Fredericksburg, Texas: Dusseldorf Mustard.

These are the perfect hand size portion for grab and go, eat on the run type meals.