OOZY MELTY CHEESY CENTRE BEEF BURGERS

Cooking lots of vegetarian food in our house means that I don't often get the chance to make proper meaty treats. However, last weekend when presented with some mince on a brilliantly hot summers day, I decided to have a go at making my own burgers. Me being me though I had to add my own twist to them so I decided to hide a blob of mozzarella in the centre of the patties so that once they were fried and you bit into them, there would be a marvelous melty oozy centre to them. Let me tell you; they were brilliant!

You can of course miss out all the faff with the mozzarella in the recipe below and just make yourself some plain but still delicious burgers. That mozzarella centre is really only there for you to show off! I've added some cheddar cheese into the patty mix too so that there is a nice sharp cheesiness too them but if you don't want to add cheese into your burgers you can always leave it out and add a smidge more mince instead.

Recipe below will make four proper sized burgers. You could make 8 smaller slider sized burgers if you wish just make sure you reduce the amount of time you fry the burgers what with them being smaller. I've cooked my burgers on the hob here too but they make for great BBQ fodder as well but don't ask me how long to cook them for (I'm as rubbish as my Dad is with a BBQ so you'd probably end up with little charcoal bullets if I gave you advice!).

Mozzarella Filled Beef Burgers

1 Large Peeled And Finely Chopped Red Onion

120g Fine Breadcrumbs

400g Lean Minced Beef

1 Large Egg

1 Large Handfull Grated Cheddar Cheese

Salt And Pepper To Season

150g Mozzarella Ball

1. Begin by placing the onion, breadcrumbs, minced beef, egg and cheese in a large bowl and season generously with salt and pepper. Give everything a good mix together until well combined and then divide the mixture into 8 equal sized portions.
2. Cut the mozzarella into four equal sized portions and then take one of the mince mixture portions and compress with your hands to make it into a burger patty shape. Place one of the mozzarella pieces onto this piece of burger.
3. Take a second piece of mince and use it to cover all of themozzarella and then reshape the mince so you end up with a burger patty around 2cm thick with the mozzarella completely concealed in the centre. Repeat with the remaining portions so you end up with 4 burgers.
4. Pop the burgers in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. Once the burgers have chilled, pour some sunflower oil into a frying pan and heat the oil on a medium heat until it is hot. Turn your oven on to a low heat.
5. Place 2 burgers into the pan and fry for 6 minutes on one side before flipping the burgers over to fry on the other side for another six minutes. If the burgers are browning too quick turn the heat down slightly so that they do not burn. 
6. Remove the burgers from the pan and remove any excess oil with kitchen paper before popping the burgers on a tray and into the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the other two burgers.

Once all the burgers are fried, keep them in the oven whilst you prepare your buns. This is where you can get extra creative. Butter your buns and then prepare any toppings you like. I like serving the burgers with a cheese slice, chopped pickled gherkins, jalapenos and a dollop of delicious burger relish all piled up high on a sesame seed bun. If you can't manage wrapping your mouth around a whole burger then cut them in half and watch that gorgeous mozzarella pour out the centre of the burger. Watch out that the centre isn't too hot for you! These brilliant oozy melty cheesy burgers are bound to go down a storm at your next BBQ!