Runza
Soft yeast bread pockets filled with seasoned ground beef, cabbage and onion and baked until golden. The Nebraska comfort food that came from the German-Russian settlers.
Runza: Step by Step
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Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the milk, melted butter and egg and mix to a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface for 8 minutes, until smooth. Put in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour, until doubled.
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For the filling, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the mince and cook for 6 minutes, breaking it up, until browned.
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Add the onion and cabbage and cook for 10 minutes, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and the liquid has cooked away. Stir in the garlic, salt and pepper. Let the filling cool for 15 minutes.
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Line two baking trays with baking parchment. Knock the air out of the dough and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each into a rectangle about 15 x 20 cm.
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Put about 100 g of filling in the middle of each piece. Fold the long sides over the filling, overlapping them, and pinch the ends and seam firmly to seal. Set the pockets seam side down on the trays.
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Cover and leave to prove for 30 minutes, until puffy.
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Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F (170°C / 340°F fan). Brush the runzas with the beaten egg and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until deep golden. Brush with the melted butter and serve warm.
What Can Go Wrong
- Cook the filling until it is dry. Wet filling makes soggy dough, and it can burst the seams as the pockets bake.
- Cool the filling before you use it. Hot filling can start to cook the dough and makes it hard to shape.
- Pinch the seams firmly and bake seam side down. A loose seam opens in the oven and the filling leaks onto the tray.
If You're Missing Something
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the usual stand-in when you are out of fresh garlic — it will not caramelise the same way, but it carries the flavour.
A Little Background
The runza is the sandwich of Nebraska, a soft yeast bread pocket packed with seasoned ground beef, cabbage and onion, and baked until golden. It came to the Great Plains with the Volga Germans, ethnic Germans who had settled in Russia in the eighteenth century and emigrated to the American Midwest in the late nineteenth century, bringing with them a bread pocket known as a bierock. A fast-food chain named Runza, founded in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1949, made the name famous, and in Nebraska a runza is as familiar as a hamburger. The filling is simple, humble and very good. Beef is browned with onion and cabbage until the vegetables collapse and the moisture cooks off, and it is seasoned with only salt and pepper, and sometimes caraway. The bread is a soft, lightly enriched dough, with milk, butter and egg, that bakes to a tender, golden crust. What matters is cooking off the liquid in the filling, since wet filling will soak the dough from inside and burst the seams. Let it cool before it goes into the dough, and pinch the seams well. Each pocket is a meal in itself, and they are ideal for freezing and reheating for lunchboxes. Serve with mustard, ketchup or a spoonful of cheese sauce.
To Go With It
Yellow mustard · Ketchup · Dill pickles
Keeping Runza
Keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in a 160°C / 325°F (140°C fan) oven for 12 minutes. Freeze baked runzas for up to 3 months and reheat from frozen for 20 minutes.
Quick Answers
How long does Runza take to make?
About 1 hour 15 minutes of hands-on work — 30 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking — plus 1 hour 30 minutes of Rising and proving, so allow 2 hours 45 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
What are the key tips for making Runza?
Cook the filling until it is dry. Wet filling makes soggy dough, and it can burst the seams as the pockets bake. Cool the filling before you use it. Hot filling can start to cook the dough and makes it hard to shape. Pinch the seams firmly and bake seam side down. A loose seam opens in the oven and the filling leaks onto the tray.
What should I serve with Runza?
Yellow mustard; Ketchup; Dill pickles.
Can Runza be made ahead or frozen?
Keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in a 160°C / 325°F (140°C fan) oven for 12 minutes. Freeze baked runzas for up to 3 months and reheat from frozen for 20 minutes.
How many calories are in Runza?
About 500 kcal per serving, with 23 g protein, 57 g carbohydrate and 20 g fat. The figures are calculated from the ingredient list and are an estimate.
Runza Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Treat these as an estimate — brands and cuts vary.
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Written and tested by Turab
One person, one kitchen — no test kitchen, no team. How every recipe on this site is checked before it goes up.
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