Runzas

Runzas are a Nebraska thing: yeast bread filled with ground beef and cabbage. Ah, I remember many happy trips to Runza Huts in Lincoln. My mom makes fantastic runzas at home; my kids devoured them very quickly. For the first time she also added cheese to some of them which worked well -- it glued the normally crumbly filling together. The original recipe was found in the Wayne Herald newspaper but she has adapted it, mostly by increasing the ratio of filling to dough.

Mom's runza recipe

Dough:

4 1/2 to 5 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 packages dry yeast

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup margarine

2 eggs, at room temperature

Filling:

1 1/4 pound hamburger

1 onion, chopped

3 cups cabbage, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 or 5 drops tabasco sauce

Dough: Measure 1 3/4 cups flour into bowl. Stir in sugar, salt and yeast. Heat milk, water and margarine until warm (120 to 130 degrees F). Pour into flour mixture. Add eggs and beat at low speed for 1/2 minute. Beat for 3 minutes at high speed. Stir in rest of flour. Knead 3 minutes until smooth. Cover with towel and let rest 20 minutes (I put in microwave to sit).

Filling: Brown hamburger and onions with salt and pepper. Add tabasco sauce. Wilt cabbage in butter (1-2 minutes in microwave) and add to meat mixture. Let cool.

Assembly: Divide dough into 20 equal portions. Roll each ball very thin -- approximately 6-7 inches in diameter. Place about 3 tablespoons filling in center of each rolled dough piece. Bring edges of dough to center and pinch together to seal. Place, smooth side up, on greased baking sheet. (I find it most efficient to roll, fill, and pinch each one separately and then repeat.) Let rise 40 to 60 minutes, until indentation remains when lightly pressed with finger.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until dough is done.