Ingredients #

Dough

• 1480 g buns and rolls dough
• 1 egg for egg wash

Make Filling #

Finely slice cabbage, onion and garlic. Get all ingredients ready.

Brown the beef => Heat skillet on medium-high until it passes the water drop test¹. Add swirl of oil, then add ground beef. Use metal spatula or spoon to break up. Add pinches of salt. Cook until browned², stirring occassionally. Remove and drain beef in paper towel lined bowl.

Cook the veggies => With hot pan on medium, add a few tablespoons oil and swirl around. Add cabbage and onions, and stir to coat. Tongs work well here. Add pinches of salt and cook it down for a few minutes. Crush the thyme leaves in your palm before mixing in, along with garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Dial up flavor => Add back ground beef and mix. Then add a spoonful or two of worchestshire, djion mustard, and malt vinegar, tasting as you go. Cook for a few minutes, then turn off heat and move mix to a bowl to cool. It needs to be cool before shaping.

Shape #

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment or silpats, and grease with oil.

Divide dough => Punch down dough and dump/scrape onto greased counter, and pat down + stretch into a rectangle. Use bench knife to cut 3x4 grid. Each piece should weight 123g if you want to be exact with a scale. Keep dough covered with plastic wrap or spritz with water bottle, to avoid the dough drying out and a skin forming.

Filling weight => use a scale to weigh the cabbage + beef mixture, and divide by 12 to get the per-runza filling weight

Roll and fill => grease counter and rolling pin¹. The goal is to have a plus sign that is thicker in the middle and very thin at the ends². Put a small bowl on a scale and zero out, then weigh the filling. Use your hands to form the filling into a patty that is the same shape as the runza, and place it on the thicker, middle part of the dough. Do two sets of letter folds, pulling the edges to cover the filling and pressing the edges slightly to seal. The dough should be thin, strong, and elastic. Flip runza onto sheet pan. Repeat for the rest, arranging six runzas per sheet pan. Cover sheet pans and let rise until puffy and passing the poke test³, 1-2 hours depending on room temperature.

Bake #

Set oven to 425°F. Beat 1 egg with a splash of milk or water until well-combined. Gently brush egg wash onto runzas. It’s like painting; you don’t want too much paint on the brush. Sprinkle with lots of sesame seeds. Put sheet pans in oven and lower temperature to 375°F. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate pans 180° and swap upper with lower. Bake for 8-12 more minutes, keeping an eye on the color towards the end. It’s worth peeking at the bottoms; if they’re getting over-done, slide another sheet pan or cookie sheet underneath the sheet pan. Move to cooling rack when runzas are a nice golden-brown color. Serve with cheap yellow mustard.

Notes #

1. Rolling Pins => small ones work best, like the kind for dumplings. They are cheap at Asian grocery stores
2. Shaping Tips => the runzas are shaped upside down, with 4 ends folding together. To get the mix centered in the runza, it helps to make the 4 ends very thin and leave some extra dough underneath the cabbage + beef mix (which is the top)
3. Poke Test => imprint the dough with your finger. If it doesn’t spring back all the way, the dough has passed the poke test and is ready to be baked.