Further Adventures from my Kitchen - Krautrunzels

My wonderful mother-in-law made this dish where she stuffed buns with hamburger and cabbage. She always called them Groutrunzels but they being a German dish involving cabbage, I’m thinking the correct term is actually Krautrunzels because Kraut is cabbage in German and when you say it they actually sound very similar and if the person who gave her the recipe spoke with an accent, even more. My husband loves them.

This past week I had planned to make these treats for my hunny as a surprise. I had asked him if he wanted me to make something else on the weekend and gave him 2 choices. While he was outside tending the Bar B Q I pulled out my mother-in-law’s recipe box to try to find the recipe. My husband came back in the house and said “you know if you want to make me something you could make me Groutrunzels”. Way to spoil the surprise my love! ;) I guess that meant it was time for me to do this for him because it was on his mind too.

I couldn’t find a recipe for them though in her treasured recipe box so I phoned her best friend who used to make them with her all the time. She didn’t have a recipe but she knew which bun recipe in the box to use and told me how to make the filling. The phone call sent her on a lovely trip down memory lane. She misses her dearest friend as much as I miss my beautiful, wonderful, loving, generous mother-in-love. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of her passing to a better place. The void that she left is incredible.

Back to my adventure… I have helped my mother make buns numerous times, but always with the punching down of the dough and the shaping of the buns, never with the actual making with proofing the yeast and kneading the dough. It was with much trepidation that I tackled this project. The recipe that she used is called Air Buns. I did a little dance when after 10 minutes of soaking in the warm sugar water my yeast was the way it should be. I kneaded the dough like a pro warmed up my oven and let it sit for 2 hours and clapped joyfully when I opened the oven to see that it had risen just the way it was supposed to. I let my son tackle the punching down of the dough. Let it rise for another hour. In the meantime I made the filling, which is so simple. Hamburger chopped cabbage and diced onion with salt & pepper and I added some steak spice (because I add steak spice to almost everything). I stuck it in the freezer for a couple of minutes to cool it a bit and you want to drain the fat/liquid so that the inside of the bun doesn’t get greasy.

Finally, hours after beginning, the process comes together. You grab a handful of the risen dough and pinch it off. You roll it flat and then spoon in some of the hamburger mixture. Then you pull in the edges and pinch them together and put the newly formed bun, pinched end down on the cookie sheet.

Set the cookie sheet aside covered with a tea towel for another hour or three. Then bake according to the bun recipe.

My husband’s family dips them in ketchup when they eat them.

It was a lot of work and so time consuming, but it was worth every minute to see how happy it made my wonderful husband. We figured it has been at least 5 years since the last time he had one. It won’t be 5 years before he has them again.