Kraut Bierock

This is a long-time favorite family recipe from my maternal grandmother's family. My grandma is 100% german. She is the second-youngest of 12 children, the youngest children were born here in the U.S., but the rest of the bunch were all born in Germany before my great-grandparents moved the family to America. This is a dish that my grandma grew up eating and she and her sisters have all kept the recipe alive in their families to date. When my grandma pronounces the name of this dish, it sounds more like grau-be-duk... at least that's how it sounds to me. I never knew how to spell it until this past week! :)

We planted a bunch of cabbage in our garden this year just so we could make up some large batches of some family-favorite recipes. I had some of my family over last Friday to make up some traditional dishes - enough for everyone to take home and have fresh and for leftovers and enough to fill my freezer with some great meals for the winter! We just made the kraut bierock filling to freeze - I'll make the dough when it comes time to eat them. And I didn't take a picture of the filling - I totally forgot. If you don't want to make the dough, you could use the ready-made crescent roll dough from the store. I've done that before, actually, and it was pretty good. Anyway... on to the recipe.

Kraut Bierock

filling:
1 cup oil (I omitted all of this)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 large sliced onions (I used about 1 1/2 huge onions)
3 pounds sliced cabbage

dough:
6-6 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
2 cups warm water
2 packages dry yeast

Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Pour yeast liquid into flour mixture (flour, sugar, salt). Knead until bowl is clean. Lastly, need in the butter for about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl. Let rise. Punch down once. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Combine the oil, beef, salt, and pepper in a large pan and cook until meat is done. Add onions and cabbage. Cover, cook about 30 minutes. Stir several times.

Divide dough into 2 parts. Roll out to about 1/4" thick. Cut into squares - 5"x5". Place filling in middle of each square. Draw up corners and seal seams by pinching together. Place on a cookie sheet, seam side down, let rise 20 minutes. Brush top with shortening. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

(You can adjust the amount of cabbage and onions to your liking. I put more cabbage and less onions usually. And don't forget the cabbage cooks down a lot, so keep that in mind when you're adding it raw.)