OUR GUILTY PLEASURE

This week in the kitchen we were talking about going on a quest to find the best burger recipe, we all got terribly excited before it transpired that we were all in agreement that the best is actually the simplest with just one ingredient – beef.

So we thought we would give your our high end version of our favourite greasy guilty pleasure. Our first requirement is that it is cooked on a BBQ (even better if it is raining to make it a truly British affair) and our second requirement is that it is extremely messy.

The most important choice when setting out to make a burger lies in the meat. Heston Blumenthal suggests mincing beef fillet, I think that is a little extravagant for us at Sugar & Spice so we suggest using chuck steak or brisket.

Beef Burger

120g chuck steak minced per person – shape into flat patties and chill in fridge until needed. Make sure the burger is the size of the bun so that you don’t just bite into bread at the beginning!

Burger Buns – makes 6

150ml milk

7.5g (1 sachet) fresh yeast

245g strong white flour

100g butter

2.5g granulated sugar

2.5g salt



Warm the milk in a pan and add yeast.

In a separate bowl mix the flour sugar and salt and then add the butter, rubbing together with your fingertips till it resembles breadcrumbs

Add the milk mixture and knead until it forms a dough then cover and leave in a warm place for about an hour to prove.

Grease a baking tray and sprinkle it with flour.

Divide the dough into roughly 70g sections and then prove for another 30 minutes.

Egg wash the tops of the buns and sprinkle with sea salt

Bake the buns for about 25 minutes at 190°C.

Pickled red onion

2 red onions

150ml red wine

200ml red wine vinegar

150ml water

150g caster sugar

½ star anise

2 cloves

½ dried chilli

1 bay leaf



Slice the red onion very finely and set aside.

Make the pickling syrup – place all the liquid ingredients into a sauce pan and add the sugar. Bring to the boil and reduce by half then turn down the heat and add the spices. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove from heat, strain the spices and leave to chill.

Put onions in a clean jar and cover with the syrup – make sure all the onions are covered.


Smokey Mayonnaise

2 egg yolks

1 tsp Dijon mustard

400ml vegetable oil

100ml olive oil

1-2 tbsps white wine vinegar

½ lemon

1 clove garlic

1 tsp smoked paprika

Pinch of salt



Whisk egg yolks and mustard together.

Very slowly add half the oil whisking constantly until it thickens.

Add 1 tbsp of vinegar

Slowly whisk in the rest of the oil

Season with salt, a squeeze of lemon.

Add more vinegar if needed to loosen the mixture.

Finely grate in garlic

Mix in paprika until well combined.

Finally add some good quality stilton and I can promise this will be one of the best burgers you have ever tasted. You can thank us later…..