Quarter Pound "Double" Cheeseburgers

This is a burger recipe from one of my husband's friends, Jeff. The reason that I wanted Dave to make me some of these burgers is because he said that when you bite into them, cheese bursts into your mouth...sounds good to me!!!

Here we go!

Step 1: We used 2.25lb ground beef. Dave says it needs to be 80% lean. The more the fat the better for burgers on the grill...not so good for the heart, though. Add a little burger seasoning to the meat and mix it up by squishing it around with your clean hands.

Step 2: Form your patties. You can use the easy method (your hands) or the more labor intensive method (a spatula). But the idea is to take about 1/4 lb of the beef and divide it in half. Smash both halves down into patties.

They must be larger than the slice of cheese that you are going to use. Pepperjack is pictured here, but my favorite cheese for a burger is always the classic American.

Step 4: Layer the patties and cheese. Put the slice of cheese on top of the bottom patty and grab the top patty and layer it.

Step 5: Pinch around the exterior of the burger to seal the cheese in.

Now they are ready for the grill :-)

Step 6: Throw 'em on the grill. Make sure the grill is nice & hot so you can get those cool grill marks ;-) Adding the cheese increases the moisture content of the burger so they are very juicy. Don't smash your burgers down when you cook them...I know it is tempting, but it squishes the good juices out...you want to keep them in, right? It can also cause the cheese to squirt out at you!!! And I'm not going to say how I know.... So put the spatula down and let 'em rest! Notice on the top rack, we have our buns grilling. We love the bread from the bakery at Walmart of all places ;-) We butter them up and let them toast while the burgers are cooking.

Here is the final product:

Dave topped off the burgers with another slice of cheese right before he took them off. I was going to cut my burger in half and show you what the inside looks like, but I'm going to leave you to try this recipe and see it for yourself ;-)

I like to cut up red onion for the burgers and we are topping them with sauteed mushrooms (another post to come). We are also having rice with broccoli & cheese and cut up green peppers dipped in ranch dressing (my sister's idea).

Happy eating!!!