Bacon Mac and Cheese Stuffed Burgers + STUFFED: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook Review

What’s your go to comfort food?  Maybe it’s mac ‘n’ cheese? Pretzels? Pizza?  Burgers? Maybe even, cookies? But what happens when those foods just aren’t comforting anymore?  Maybe they are comforting, but you’ve been trying to take it to the next level in the kitchen?  Well, how about stuffing it!?

SAY WHAT!?

Crust isn’t the only thing getting stuffed over here.  We recently had the opportunity to check out blogger and author, Dan Whalen’s newest book, Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook [Page Street Publishing, January 2014].  Whalen is the master chef behind very popular food blog, The Food In My Beard. 

There are a total of five chapters in the book including: Stuffed Breads, Stuffed Meats, Stuffed Pasta and Rice, Stufed Veggies and Fruits, and Stuffed Sweets. There are so many recipes in here that I want to try and it was so hard not trying to taste test all of them immediately.  Some of the recipes in this book include: 

And so many, many more amazing recipes.  About 40% of the book contains pictures along with the recipes which is a big PLUS in our book.  I always want to know what my recipe is “supposed” to look like.  Ultimately,  I had to narrow it down to just one! We ended up going with the Mac and Cheese Stuffed Burger! 

Here’s the recipe exactly as it’s written from the cookbook:

Ingredients: 
Mac and Cheese 
1/2 small onion
1 clove garlic
8 oz Cheddar Cheese
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese
8 ounces pasta
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
salt

Burgers
2.25lb beef
salt and pepper
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
20 tomatoes slices
8 burger buns

Directions:

Make the Mac and Cheese: Dice the onion very small.  Mine the garlic.  Grate cheeses.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook your pasta until al dente according to package directions.  Meanwhile, cook the onion in the butter for about 5 minutes.  Toss in the garlic.  Next, add the flour and whisk well to combine.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring the whole time, until the flour turns a slightly toasted hue.  Add the milk and whisk well to eliminate any lumps.  Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat.  Add the pasta, the mix in the cheese.  Stir until all the cheese melts, which should happen naturally, but you can put it back on to low heat if necessary. Taste and add salt if necessary, as all cheeses have different salt contents. pour the pasta into a 9 x 13 pan lined with parchment paper and smooth out into a thin layer.  Refrigerate until hardened, about 2 hours.

Cut your sheet of mac and cheese into rounds about 3 1/4 inches in diameter to facilitate burgers that will be 4 to 4 1/2 inches round.  A cookie cutter will help with this task if you have one that is the right size.  You should be able to get 10 or 11 mac and cheese patties out of this if you cut it right.

Stuff It: Roll your beef out thin (about 1/2 inch) and lightly season with salt and pepper.  Place a mac and cheese round onto the beef and wrap the pasta in the meat.  Tightly seal and press out any air.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the olive oil.  Lay your tomatoes on a sheet pan and presses some breadcrumbs onto each tomato round.  Broil the tomatoes for a minute or two to brown the breadcrumbs.

COOK It!: Grill your burgers for about 7 minutes per side, being sure to close the grill or cover the burgers so that the pasta inside is heated through.  If you see any cheese starting to explode out of the burger, take it off the grill.  Build the burger by putting one of the patties on the bottom bun, topping with two breadcrumb-coasted tomato slices and then the top bun.

My adaptions:  I used 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella and 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (simply because that’s what I had on hand).  I used 6oz of pasta instead of 8oz (again, this is because it’s all I had — I actually thought I had a new box but low and behold, #mommyfail- I’d use 8oz in the future).  I used unsalted butter and did not salt the pasta water (remember we don’t really do salt here).  I only used 1lb of meat since it’s just Andrew and I and it was enough to make 4-5 burgers and have a heaping bowl of mac n cheese left over.  I also sprinkled about 1/2 tsp of dried basil over the meat when adding the pinch of salt and pepper.  Lastly, I added BACON to the sandwiches, because it’s bacon!  Tip:  Use a 3 inch cookie cutter to cut the mac and cheese rounds and the burgers to make it easier and perfect bun sized burgers.

These burgers turned out amazing.  I’ve received so many comments on them from sharing on my social media already and I’m so excited to try something else out of this awesome cookbook!