This recipe has a Pig-Out Scale rating of 6.3.

Oh, what’s that? You’re not used to seeing a Pig-Out Scale on recipes?

That’s because you haven’t seen the first cookbook written by my blogging friend Dan (Food in my Beard). Dan and I have a long blogging history together that goes back damn near five years and wouldn’t you believe it, he beats me at almost every blogging milestone. This includes, of course, the first fully published cookbook.

Jealous? A bit. But, I’ll give credit where credit is due.

His book, Stuffed!, is a hilarious ride through the mind of a food genius. All of the recipes in the book are stuffed with things. When I first read it, my mouth just kept dropping more which each recipe. It’s a wild cookbook.

The recipes span the range from easy to I-will-never-try-that (turducken), and have a wide range of items on the pig-out scale. I was inclined to make something a bit higher on the pig-out scale so I chose these little beauties. Surprise! They were amazing.

Read on to see how to make them and also Enter to Win a Copy of STUFFED!

Cheeseburger Steam Buns

Print Pin
4 from 10 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 5 Servings
Prep Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 3 hours

Equipment

Ingredients 

Bun Dough:

  • 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 4 ½ cups flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ½ cup hot water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Burger Filling

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 2 large onions, diced
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 5 slices Cheddar or American cheese, quartered
  • Ketchup, for serving
  • Salt, for seasoning

Instructions

Make the Dough:

  • Mix the yeast, warm water and 1 cup (120 g) of the flour in a medium bowl and let sit for 1 hour until bubbles form.
  • Mix the sugar with the hot water and oil in a small bowl. Add this to the yeast mixture along with the remaining 3½ cups (420 g) flour and knead until smooth, about 12 minutes. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Make the Filling:

  • Form the beef into 16-20 small patties. In a skillet, sauté the onions in the butter over medium heat until they are deeply browned, about 15 minutes.

Stuff It!:

  • Divide the dough into 20 uniform pieces. Roll out each piece to 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, place a patty on it, top with the onions and a slice of cheese and wrap fully with the dough. Repeat to complete all 20 buns.

Cook It:

  • Steam in batches of 5 or 10 depending on how big your steamer is. Steam over high heat for about 12 to 15 minutes, until cooked through. Serve with ketchup.

Notes

Recipe from Stuffed!

Nutrition

Serving: 4buns | Calories: 878kcal | Carbohydrates: 104g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 93mg | Sodium: 183mg | Potassium: 496mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 311IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 169mg | Iron: 7mg
Course: Appetizers, Breads
Cuisine: Asian

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

The Dough

Good steamed buns are all about the dough in my opinion and this recipe is really great. It’s no fuss and is just sweet enough to counter the savory flavors of the filling.

It starts by combining a small amount of flour with the yeast and water and letting that sit for about an hour to get the yeast working. To be honest, I only let mine sit for 30 minutes and it seemed to be fine.

Really wet stuff.
Really wet stuff.

It’ll bubble like crazy when it’s done which is good. Then combine the hot water with the sugar and oil in a small bowl and add that to the dough base.

Then add the rest of the flour to the dough and stir it together. Knead the dough by hand for about 12 minutes until it’s a really smooth, soft dough.

Get it?
Get it?

Let the dough rise a second time for a solid hour. it should at least double in size.

Meanwhile, you can prep the fillings!

Onions, Beef, and Cheese. Oh My.

You really do want to cook down two whole onions for the filling in these. I roughly chopped mine and let them cook down slowly in a large skillet with some butter and a pinch of salt.

Low and slow.
Low and slow.

After about 20 minutes they should be caramelized and golden brown.

YUM.
YUM.

When you’re ready to make the buns, lay out all your ingredients.

I’m sort of anal so while Dan said you could get 20 buns out of the batch, I wanted to do an ounce of beef per bun so I did 16 slightly larger ones. I also divided my dough by weight to make sure they were even, but you could probably eyeball it.

The assembly line.
The assembly line.

Roll a small dough ball out and then place a round of beef in the center. Season the beef with a sprinkle of salt and top with cheese and onions!

I used cheddar cheese, but the original calls for American. Personal preference I think.

Packed full.
Packed full.

Then just crimp the edges of the bun up around the beef.

Something like that...
Something like that…

I’m far from an expert bun maker but these turned out pretty solid and were easy to shape.

Boom!
Boom!

I recommend shaping them all and then steaming them. The dough will dry out if you let it sit for awhile.

In a normal sized bamboo steamer you should be able to fit 4-5 buns per level so you’ll probably have to steam in two batches.

Pretty things.
Pretty things.

One tip: I recommend lightly oiling your steamer before steaming or the buns will stick to the steamer and be a bit tough to remove.

These will need to steam for about 13-15 minutes and then definitely let them cool for a few minutes before chomping into them.

I recommend serving these guys with a sprinkle of coarse salt and mustard, but ketchup is the recommended serving in the book. I’m just not a ketchup guy!

CHOMP.
CHOMP.

To be honest, I didn’t find these to be overly filling. Betsy and I ate a few for dinner with some chips and I thought they were less filling than a plain, normal cheeseburger.

They were very delicious though and would be a show-stopping appetizer for a football game or something!

The Giveaway!

Screen shot 2014-01-24 at 5.09.09 PM

If you are into entertaining or just into experimenting with cooking, I think you would like this book. Like I said, it has some ideas in it that you just won’t see anywhere else.

People… he stuffs a full chocolate cake with an entire cherry pie.

How could I not giveaway a copy of this sucker?

Leave a comment with your favorite stuffed food and I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, February 3rd!

Congrats to my buddy Dan on the book!

Winner!

Congrats to Karen for winning the giveaway!