Recipe: Double Candied Bacon Cheeseburgers

This indulgent recipe is sure to be a hit with anyone who tries them. In fact, you’ll love the candied bacon so much that you’ll want to make extra, just to eat on its own!

Warning, these burgers are so good, they’ll make you want to cry.

INGREDIENTS:

For the patties:

250g of lean steak mince (split into roughly four golf ball-sized amounts)
Salt
Pepper
Half of an OXO cube
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of grated onion
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons of chipotle paste (we used Tesco brand)

For the toppings:

American mustard
Relish
4 slices of American cheese
Lettuce
Mayo
Smoked Paprika

For the candied bacon:

6 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup (the darker the better)

BUN:

You’ll need two burger buns. You can make your own or use your favourite shop-bought ones. We used the ‘Ultimate burger buns’ from M&S. You can pick up a pack of two for 99p.

We made our burgers with homemade onion rings (optional). If you’d like to do the same, here’s what you’ll need for them:

50g plain flour
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
Half a tablespoon of oil
75ml of milk
Dash of Paprika
Dash of Cayenne Pepper

(Makes two burgers)

Here’s what you need to do, in order (onion rings not included, see bottom for step by step process):

1. PREPARE & COOK THE CANDIED BACON

– Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and layer the bacon over the rack.
– Place the brown sugar and maple syrup into a microwavable dish and mix together. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds or until warm.
– Use a small basting brush to generously cover the top side of the bacon with the mixture. Once done, flip each slice over and repeat on the other side until all slices are coated.
– Place in the oven and cook for 30 mins.

2. PREPARE THE PATTIES

– Combine the mince, salt, pepper, crumbled OXO, chilli, grated onion, chipotle paste & egg yolk in a bowl. Use your hands to mix together and form into four golf ball-sized shapes.

3. PREPARE THE BUNS

– Half your burger buns and add some shredded lettuce to the bottom half, then set aside.

4. COOK THE PATTIES

Once there’s around 5 minutes of cooking time left for the bacon, it’s time to cook the patties.

– Heat up a skillet or pan with a little oil
– Sprinkle salt on the top side of the meat only. Place each ball of meat into the hot pan (salt side down). Cook for around one minute.
– While these are cooking, sprinkle salt on the top side this time and flip over. At this point you want to smash the patties down. Following the instructions above should ensure that it stays together and doesn’t fall apart. To ‘smash’ it, simply press down on the patty with a fish slice until it reaches your desired look.
– Flip and cook until done.

*** At this point, your bacon should be ready so be sure to take it out of the oven ***

3. BUILD THE BURGERS

– First, mix together a tablespoon of mayo and a teaspoon of paprika in a small dish. This will give you nice spiced, slightly smokey mayo for the bun.

Then, simply half your burger buns and build as follows (from bottom to top):

– Bottom half of bun
– Lettuce
– Patty
– Cheese
– Patty
– Cheese
– Candied bacon
– Top half of bun (add your paprika mayo mix and some mustard to the top half of the bun before placing it on top. Don’t put the sauce on the patty itself.)

4. MELTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER

This is our favourite part. Once you’ve built both burgers, lightly wrap each one in tin foil and place them on the bottom shelf of the oven for a few minutes. This will heat the entire burger a little more and further melt the cheese, meat, sauce and toppings all together for a great look and finish.

*** HOW TO PREPARE & COOK THE ONION RINGS (OPTIONAL) ***

As we mentioned earlier, we served these burgers with homemade onion rings. If you want to do the same, you’ll need to follow the steps below:

– Sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt and make a well in the centre. Drop in the egg yolks and the oil. Then, add the milk and beat well until this becomes a batter. Cover and stand for around 30 minutes.
– Slice the onions into large rings.
– Pour some oil into a pan until it’s no more than 1/ 3 full and heat.
– Whisk the egg white and add into the batter.
– Dip the onion rings into the batter and drop in the hot pan. Fry for around 4 minutes or until golden brown.

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