Two extra special things happening this month! I’m celebrating “Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen” blog’s 5th birthday, and sharing two mouthwatering creations, including this Beef Cordon Bleu Bacon Apple Fritter Burger, for #BurgerMonth! 

 

Lightly sweet & savory split apple fritters with bacon & red onion sprinkled with spiced sugars, topped with angel cabbage, crumb-coated and deep-fried ground beef patties stuffed with blue cheese, maple wood smoked butter-fried piles of shaved ham topped with melted fontina, mozzarella and provolone cheeses, and a dreamy maple-mustard-mayo sauce to die for laded over the tops!! Needless to say…these sliders are insanely delicious!! (*And just so we’re cool, this is not a sponsored post, though I am a Brand Ambassador for Minerva Dairy and use one of their products in my burger creation. But any and all opinions of any products mentioned are solely my own.) 

 

So if you’re a burger lover, barbecue aficionado, and midnight smoker, too, you’re in for one of the biggest burger bashes on the internet! In the neighborhood of 50 bloggers from sea to shining sea are participating in this year’s #BurgerMonth event, organized by Kita of Girl Carnivore, and it again is going to be one helluva crazy-fun event! So get your grills dusted off and prepared, because we’re all giving you enough inspiring, unique, and stylish burger creations to choose from to keep you busy the whole summer long! And wait! There’s more!! ha! No, seriously, there really is!! You can also enter to win a super amazing GRILL SWAG PRIZE PACKAGE, too!! See what you have a chance to win below in this post, and be sure to enter!

 

 

 

 

So the first burger I made for this year’s event, is basically, a jazzed up take on “beef cordon bleu”! And it’s so shockingly delicious, that you can’t even put it down! (Except to maybe swipe it into more of that delicious sauce that pooled onto the plate!) And it’s actually very easy to make, too! The sauce comes together in a matter of seconds……

 

(*See all those wonderful bits of spice?! That’s from the creole mustard! I used Zatarain’s but you can use whatever mustard makes you happy!)

 

 

 

…and the fritters could not be more simple to make! They use only the very basic of ingredients that you probably already have right on hand! (*You’ll find that recipe below the main recipe for the burger, in case you only wanted to make or print out one or the other.) But I HIGHLY recommend that you make these! They truly kicked butt!!

 

 (*I got 9 this time because I made a couple of them a little too small.
But you should try for 8.
It’s no biggie if you end up with one more or one less.)

   

 

 

While they’re hot, sprinkle them with my sweet & spicy cayenne sugar mix! I just sprinkled a little so that they wouldn’t be too sweet, but you can roll them in it if you want to! I won’t tell!

 

 

 

 

Next are the angus beef patties! My hubby is not a fan of blue cheese, so I made two stuffed burgers, and three burgers out of the rest of the meat for him. (The two on the right-hand side are the ones stuffed with blue cheese.) Also note that I only made a half of a recipe for us, since it’s just the two of us, and managed to stretch his out to three instead of just two. Even his were still small, though. So don’t let the photos trick the eye! They’re not full-sized burgers, these are slider-sized.

 

 

 

 

They’re then coated with seasoned flour, dipped in an egg bath, and then nicely coated with seasoned dry bread crumbs!

 

 

 

 

Lastly, they’re fried until a deep golden brown on the outside! *DO NOT add too many to the pan at once. For one, you don’t want to overcrowd your pan for even cooking. Two, overcrowding will also reduce the temperature of your oil, and your food will absorb too much of it and end up being greasy. And third, towards the end of the cooking time, any water that your store has added to the ground beef will cause the oil to bubble a lot.

But no worries, they just need to be turned over, then let them go a bit longer, and they’re done!

 

 

 

 

Next, it’s time to assemble these babies! Just slice open a fritter, top the bottom with a palmful of angel-cut cabbage, and place a hot beef patty on top.

 

 

 

 

Part two for the inside is the ham! You’ll want to have your deli slice it VERY thin so that you can mound and scrunch up three slices per slider making nice little piles.

 

 

 

 

Then top each pile with a nice big ole pinch of cheese. Ok, a small handful! I love me some cheese, what can I say?!!

Now. I experimented and heated the meat and cheeses two different ways, and we actually preferred the way that I did them the first day. I placed piles of ham and cheese onto melted Minerva Dairy Smoked Maple Wood Butter on a griddle, and covered the piles with a dome lid to heat through and melt the cheeses.

 

 

 

 

The ham was lightly crispy-fried on the bottom and the cheeses melted beautifully! So you can do this either way. But I really recommend the stovetop method versus the broiler for extra flavor!

If you don’t have any dome lids, you can simply use a tall metal pan lid or even a metal mixing bowl or cake pan. (*Metal will get hot, so remember to use hot pads to remove it.)

 

 

 

 

Day two, I placed the piles onto a foil-lined baking sheet and broiled, but the ham didn’t heat all the way through before the cheese melted. Also, we really missed that lightly crispy, buttery bottom that the ham got when I fried it.

 

 

 

 

So anyways, when the ham is sizzling and the cheese has melted, simply remove it with a spatula and place it on top of your patty. This whole part only takes a minute or two.

 

 

 

 

Then ladle on that glorious Maple-Mustard-Mayo Sauce! And the more the better, we say!! That sauce is spoon-lickin’ good!

 

 

 

 

Place on your top “bun” and you’re all set!!

 

 

 

 

I sliced mine open for you so that you can see inside! My horrible photo does NOT do it justice! I’m so sorry about that! I’m a cook and a baker, and not a professional photographer. I do try my best for you, though!!

 

 

 

 

So don’t let my less than stellar photos fool you! This was truly an amazing experience for the tastebuds!! Everything went together BEAUTIFULLY!! Besides, beautiful, picture-perfect photos do not always a good recipe make. In the end, the most important thing is that the food tastes good.

 

 

 

 

These babies were truly AMAZING in flavor, but didn’t last NEARLY long enough! We were so sad to see these Beef Cordon Bleu Bacon Apple Fritter Burgers disappear! I will definitely be creating another one soon!

Hope you all enjoy as much as we did! (I will be making a FULL recipe next time!)

 

 Here are this year’s Sponsors that have provided these Amazing Prizes you can #WIN!!

 

 

 

 

All winners will be entered to win a Weber Spirit II E-310 gas grill! Grand prize grill winner will be announced June 4th!

 

 

Enter Here!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

#BurgerMonth2018 Participants!

 

  A Day in the Life on the Farm ♦ A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures ♦ A Southern Fairytale ♦ Adventures of Frugal Mom ♦An Affair from the Heart ♦ Bread Booze Bacon ♦ Brocavore ♦ Butcher Betties ♦ Cluttercafe ♦ Comfortably Domestic ♦ Cookie Named Desire ♦ Courtney’s Sweets ♦ Culinary Adventures with Camilla ♦ Eating Richly ♦ Everyday Southwest ♦ Family Around the Table ♦ Family Food on the Table ♦ Fearless Dining ♦ Food Above Gold ♦ Gimme Some Grilling ♦ Girl Abroad  ♦ Grilling Montana ♦ Grumpy’s Honeybunch ♦ Hall Nesting ♦ HORNS BBQ ♦ Jolene’s Recipe Journal ♦ Kecia’s Flavor Breakthrough ♦ Kudos Kitchen by Renee ♦ Life of a Ginger ♦ Love and Confections ♦ Mildly Meandering ♦ Miss in the Kitchen ♦ Moore or Less Cooking ♦ My World Simplified ♦ Palatable Pastime ♦ Pastry Chef Online ♦ Pook’s Pantry ♦ RDelicious Kitchen ♦ Sailrockland ♦ Sarah’s Cucina Bella ♦ Seduction In The Kitchen ♦ Sumptuous Spoonfuls ♦ Sweet ReciPEAs ♦ Tampa Cake Girl ♦ The Beard and The Baker ♦ The Complete Savorist ♦ The Crumby Kitchen ♦ The Farmstand Market ♦ The Redhead Baker ♦ The Schmidty Wife ♦ The Spiffy Cookie ♦ The Suburban Soapbox ♦ Thyme for Cocktails   ♦ Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen ♦ Wok & Skillet ♦ Girl Carnivore ♦ 365 Days of Easy Recipes ♦ Everyday Eileen ♦ For the Love of Food ♦ Dixie Chik Cooks ♦ Beyer Beware ♦ avlfoodie

 

 

 

 

A huge thanks to the #BurgerMonth Sponsors, American Lamb Board, Anolon, Cabot Cheese, Melissa’s Produce, Microplane, New York Beef Council, Red Duck, Spiceologist, Veal Made Easy, and Weber Grills!

 

As well as a huge thanks to Kita, of GirlCarnivore, for doing this incredible event and putting up with us all! Smooth rides don’t teach us anything. Bumps in the road are much more fun, and we all help each other to learn and grow! Here’s to #BurgerMonth2018!

 

*Don’t forget to scroll down to see my easy Bacon Apple Fritters with Red Onion right below this recipe!! It’s simply a MUST MAKE for these babies!

*Also, remember that these are slider-sized, and not full-sized burgers.

 

Yield: 8 sliders

Beef Cordon Bleu Bacon Apple Fritter Burgers #BurgerMonth

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Ingredients

For Burgers:

• 2 lbs. extra lean ground beef
• 16 Tbl. bleu (or blue) cheese ([i]*see note[/i]), 2 Tbl. per burger
• [i]Dish One:[/i] 1/2 cup flour (enough to lightly coat outside of each burger) mixed with 1/2 tsp. each: salt and pepper
• [i]Dish Two:[/i] 2 well-beaten eggs
• [i]Dish Three:[/i] 1 cup Italian-seasoned dry breadcrumbs mixed with 1 tsp. salt

Topping Ingredients:

• 1 stick Minerva Dairy Smoked Maple Wood Butter, 1 Tbl. per burger melted on griddle pan
• 24 very thin slices boiled picnic ham (3 slices per sandwich), about 12 oz. to 1 lb.
• 1 packed cup (4 oz.) freshly grated fontina
• 1/2 cup mozzarella & provolone blend shredded cheese (I used Sargento)
• 2 cups angel (fine cut) cole slaw mix, (or just a palmful per burger)

Creole Mustard Maple Mayo Sauce:

• 1/2 cup regular heavy mayo
• 1/8 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tbl. creole mustard, (*I used Zatarain's)

Instructions

In small bowl, whisk together mustard-maple-mayo sauce ingredients until well mixed and creamy. Cover and chill.

In three pie plates or shallow bowls, mix together the seasoned liar in one, the beaten eggs in the second, and the seasoned bread crumbs in the third.

Divide meat into 8 equal portions, and make two small thin patties out of each section. Top 8 with blue cheese, then top each with a second patty, seal edges WELL making sure there are no cracks.

Coat each side lightly in the seasoned flour, then coat well with beaten egg letting excess drip away, then coat well with bread crumb mixture patting on. Place onto a waxed or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Heat a large deep frying pan with about 1 1/2 - 2 inches of oil and heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, reduce to medium-low heat and carefully add 2 - 3 burgers. Fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once or twice, for about 7 - 9 minutes for "done all the way through". (Less for a little pink inside.) It will start off slow, but then cook much more rapidly towards halfway through and especially at the end. It will end up done inside, the cheese melted and gorgeously browned on the outside. *I only recommend doing this with lean, quality ground beef, as cheaper blends may contain too much water. Place cooked burgers onto cooling rack placed over a baking sheet.

While burgers are resting, melt individual tablespoons of butter onto a griddle pan and melt. Make crunchy piles of ham (3 slices each) on top of melted butter and cover with a domed lid. Fry over medium/medium low heat until cheese has fully melted and ham is lightly crispy on the bottom.

While ham is cooking, split open fritters, place small palmfuls of slaw on the bottoms and top with a burger patty. Remove ham piles with a spatula and place on top of patties. Ladle spoonfuls of sauce over the the tops, place on fritter tops, and enjoy!!

Notes

"Bleu" cheese refers to imported, while "Blue" cheese refers to domestic cheese made in the U.S.A. (such as Maytag, etc.), and both of course work equally well.
*You can reuse the same oil that you fried the fritters in, as the fritters leave the oil with barely any bits left behind at all.

 

You can certainly purchase apple fritters to use for this recipe, but homemade are SO much better, ridiculously easy to make, and besides…mine aren’t overly sweet and also have bacon and onions in them and a spiced sugar on top! What’s not to LOVE about that, right? So do please make a batch! You’ll be so glad that you did! Here’s my EZ PZ Recipe!

 

Yield: 8 Fritters

Bacon Apple Fritters with Red Onion

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Ingredients

For Fritters:

• 1 Tbl. light brown sugar
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

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• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice, ok to sub concentrate (*just a sprinkling is needed of either)
• 2-3 cups peeled, cored and chopped Granny Smith or Gravenstein apples (firm pie apples!)
• 3 strips thick-cut, lean, peppered & crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled into very small pieces
• 1 Tbl. super finely chopped red onion
• Vegetable oil for deep-frying (approx. 4-5 cups- enough to come halfway up sides of pan or skillet)

Spicy Sugar:

• 2 Tbl. packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbl. regular sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/16 tsp. cayenne, more if you want a little extra kick

Instructions

In a large bowl (or the bowl to a stand mixer), cream the sugar, eggs and vanilla for 1-2 minutes with the paddle attachment.

Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pie spice, salt and milk. Mix well, scraping bowl as needed.

In a separate bowl, chop and toss peeled apples with lemon juice. Stir apples into batter.

In large, deep, cast iron skillet or deep frying pan, heat vegetable oil to 375º (use a deep-fry thermometer or an electric skillet with a temperature control). Make sure that the oil is hot enough to fry the fritters correctly.

Once the oil is at 375º, scoop out large spoonfuls of the batter, and carefully and gently slide the fritter batter into the hot oil. *I use two large serving spoons for this.

When they get to a deep golden brown color, carefully turn the fritters over to brown the other side and continue cooking. (This should take approx. 2-3 minutes per each side).

When the fritters become brown on both sides (you might have to flip them over again to make sure both sides are nicely browned), you'll know that they'll be fully-cooked throughout.

Using a wire mesh strainer or slotted spoon, remove the fritters, one at a time, to a paper-towel lined (several thicknesses) rack to drain, then transfer to another cooling rack to fully cool. (*If wanting to use the cinnamon-sugar coating, sprinkle or roll fritters in the mixture while the fritters are still hot.)

For Spicy Sugar: Add ingredients to small bowl and stir until well mixed.