Oh my… this is the best Spanish Hamburger ever!
A hamburger with a Spanish twist? Why not! We decided to design a Spanish Hamburger, a tasty burger that combines elements from Spanish cuisine. The main thing is using fresh ingredients.
We bought a chuck cut which is cheap and contains enough fat for the burger. After grinding, we added a taste of Spain in the form of olives, capers and smoked paprika.
The problem with homemade buns usually is that they cannot hold the weight or the moisture of the contents, and they break easily.
While this Spanish Hamburger recipe takes 4 hours to make, it’s definitely worth it because the structure is exactly right for a hamburger. The buns become soft from the surface, and they still hold the contents without breaking.
To fine-tune the Spanish taste for this Spanish Hamburger, proper ketchup and mayonnaise would be in order, too. We made our own ketchup from scratch but took a shortcut with mayo. Mayo is not hard to make, but it goes stale quickly.
Last but not least, we fried some onions and green paprika in honey and soy sauce. Green paprika brings nice color while caramelized onions offer a great flavor!
Step-By-Step Spanish Hamburger From Scratch
Ingredients
Hamburger Buns For 4 Servings:
- ½ cups water
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 cups wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons soft butter
- 1 handful sesame seeds
Homemade Spanish Ketchup:
- 8 cloves garlic
- 8 large tomatoes
- 1 splash olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 splash Jerez vinegar
- 1 medium chili
- 1 pinch Spanish smoked paprika spicy
- 1 splash honey
- ½ cups tomato paste
Spanish Mayonnaise:
- ½ cups jar mayonnaise
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika spicy
Spanish Hamburgers For 4 Servings:
- 500 grams ground chuck
- ½ cups green olives with stones removed
- ¼ cups capers
- 2 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika spicy
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
Instructions
How To Make Homemade Spanish Ketchup:
- Soften minced garlic and chili in olive oil in a saucepan.
- Slice tomatoes in 4 slices and add them to the saucepan, too. Let the tomatoes soften a bit so that juice is extracted.
- Stir the mixture every once in a while. When tomatoes are soft, and juices are boiling, add a little bit of honey to cut the bitterness of tomatoes, a pinch of salt, pepper and smoked paprika and a splash of vinegar to taste. Too not over a season because the ketchup is reduced by half. Add tomato paste, which brings flavor and turns color from yellowish to more red. Let the mixture simmer for about 1-1.5 hours until the structure is right. Add salt, pepper, smoked paprika, honey and vinegar, if needed. Stir well and let it cool before serving.
How To Make Hamburger Buns For 4 Servings:
- Combine warm water, milk, yeast and sugar. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Break 1 egg in a glass and whisk a little. Put flour in a bowl and stir the salt and soft butter in. Then add the water/milk mixture and the whisked egg and knead to a dough.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 8-10 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. The dough will be sticky, so you may need to add a little flour to knead easier.
- Rise for 2 hours. Time seems long, but it is worth it.
- Roll the flattened balls and rise under a towel for another 2 hours.
- After 4 hours of waiting, brush with egg and add sesame seeds. Bake at 200 °C (400 ºF) for 10-15 minutes. Let the buns rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting them.
How To Make Spanish Mayonnaise:
- Mince the garlic and mix well with mayonnaise and smoked paprika. Voilá, you are done! Let the mixture rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
How To Make Spanish Hamburgers For 4 Servings:
- Mince olives and capers and mix well with ground chuck, smoked paprika, salt and ground black pepper. Shape the hamburgers and grill them for about 2 minutes per side if you want them medium.
- Cut the buns in half and coat the top side with the mayo and the bottom side with the ketchup. Put onion/paprika mix on the bottom, place the hamburger on top of that and finish with cheese of your choice. We used brie which works very well with this hamburger.