Baking Blackheart: Cheese Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

Hmmmmmm... burger and sweet potato fries!

When Chef Blackheart told me he was going to make homemade burgers, this is what I imagined Rose and Ryan were going to say, without saying.

HILARIOUS!

Ok, ok. Back to giving recipes, I promise.

What you'll need:

Bread Buns

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 tbsp butter

1 large egg

3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tsp onion powder

Olive oil for greasing pan

Tools Needed:

Electric mixer

(2) Large bowls

Spatula

Cutting Board (optional)

Clean towel

Baking sheet

House Seasoning (Thank you Paula Dean)

Ingredients:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Tools Needed:

Plastic bag (small)

Sharpie

Burgers

Ingredients:

1 lb grass-fed ground beef

1tbs "House Seasoning" (salt, pepper, and garlic powder mixture)

Tools Needed:

Grill

Thermometer (optional)

Blue Cheese Butter

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Blue Cheese

1/2 Cup butter stick

Tools Needed:

1 small microwavable bowl

spoon

Toppings

Cheese

Tomatoes

Lettuce

etc.

Tools Needed:

Cutting Board

Knife

Running Water

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes

1 tbsp House Seasoning

1/2 tsp paprika

Tools Needed:

Cutting board

knife (crinkle knife makes prettier fries, but we don't have one)

baking pan

parchment paper (or foil if you don't have parchment paper)

This seems like a lot. But it really isn't. It didn't take a lot of time (except the bread, all bread takes time. not a lot of work, but a lot of waiting.) We'll start off with the bread and just move right along.

1. First, Chef Blackheart heated the butter, water, and sugar on the stove on low heat. Remove the mixture from heat just before the butter melts completely.

2. Mix all other dry ingredients (flour, salt, instant yeast, and onion powder.) Make sure you mix thoroughly. You should hear crunching while you are stirring in the yeast.

3. Add the butter/ water/ and sugar to the dry mixture

4. Beat for 30 seconds

5. Add the egg, beat for another 30 seconds

(If it's dry and flaky, add 1/4 cup of water and finish mixing by hand)

6. Mix until you've made a soft smooth dough

7. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl (He used olive oil.)

8. Cover the bowl with a clean towel.

9. Put in a warm draft free place. We normally place our bread in the turned off oven with a bowl of hot water underneath it.

10. Let it sit for an hour. The bread should have doubled in size. If it look like it hasn't moved. Throw it away. Go buy some bread from the bakery for tonight, and try again. Or try again, if you actually have time.

11. If it looks like it going somewhere, but you don't think it looks like enough, wait another 30 minutes, and then just go to the next step.

12. Divide the dough in to 8 equal parts. Chef Blackheart cut it with a knife, then shaped them into a flattened ball.

13. Place them on a greased baking pan, cover, and let them rise an additional 30-40 minutes

14. Pre-heat the oven to 375F

15. Bake the buns 12-15 minutes, until they are golden brown

16. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.

17. Split and use for burgers.

House Seasoning

Ingredients:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Tools Needed:

Plastic bag (small)

Sharpie

1. Put all the ingredients in the bag. Give to one of your children and let them shake it.

2. If you're child is old enough to write, have them put the date on it.

3. If there's any left, throw away six months from that date.

Blue Cheese Butter

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Blue Cheese

1/2 Cup butter stick

Tools Needed:

1 small microwavable bowl

spoon

1. Soften the butter in the microwave. I used 1 minute on half power and I completely melted the butter.
2. Mix in the blue cheese.
3. Give the bowl and spoon to any child willing to help. Give the child praise for helping!
4. The butter will begin to thicken.
5. Place the blue cheese butter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill.
6. Once you're finished, place in a sealable container.