Runzas

When my friend Tony made his very first trip to Nebraska last month on business, I naturally recommended a few places for him to eat. He was staying in Lincoln's Haymarket neighborhood, right off the University of Nebraska campus, the school I attended my freshman year.

He took me up on both of my recommendations, and came home with a recipe for one of them. His colleague in Nebraska had told him that he could make his very own Runzas. As much as I missed this amazing Nebraska "ovenstuffed" sandwich, it was nothing I'd ever tried at home myself. But I was certainly up for it!

The recipe at first seemed a little bit daunting, but after baking kolaches a few months ago, making the dough from scratch didn't sound so awful.

Tony got to work cooking the beef, and I mixed up the dough.





The kneading took plenty of muscle! Meanwhile Tony had the easy job of cutting up cabbage and onions. :)



I grew so impatient waiting for the dough to rise, that I sent Tony out for back-up dough along with mushrooms and swiss to add to some of our Runzas.

But eventually the dough did rise, and we were ready to roll it out and fill it up!





Unlike the original Runza, ours were shaped in triangles, and I was nervous to see how they would turn out.



But I have to admit, they were delicious! No, they weren't nearly as good as the real deal, but worth making from scratch again? Definitely!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try!:

Runza Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• FILLING:
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 4 cups chopped cabbage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, place 1-3/4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Heat milk, water and shortening to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F. Pour over flour mixture; add the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low until blended. Beat 3 additional minutes on high. Stir in the remaining flour; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes Place dough in a greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, brown beef and onions in a skillet. Add the cabbage, salt and pepper; cook until cabbage is wilted. Punch dough down; roll into 12/6-in. squares. Top each square with 1/3 cup meat mixture. Fold into triangles. Pinch edges tightly to seal and place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot