Inside the commercial kitchen, the scent of fresh pastry, savory bacon and cheese fill the air. Stacy Mahan rolls out the dough, concentrating on delivering the nostalgic flavor of her childhood to Lubbock. Her husband, Warren Mahan, pulls the freshly baked goods onto a cooling rack.
The two will spend the day filling orders for their new business, Heartland Bakes, inside The Culinary Co-Op, 5044 Frankford Ave. #900. But they aren’t just making bread. Stacy Mahan is serving up flair with the Nebraska and Kansas favorite, the bierock.
What is a bierock?
A bierock is a type of sandwich, or stuffed roll, encased in a yeast dough. The classic filling has ground beef, cabbage and onions, which led it to be also known as the cabbage burger. People from Nebraska would recognize it as a runza, trademarked by the restaurant franchise of the same name since 1949.
It is known by other names, including krautburger or kraut pirok. In Kansas, it is known as the bierock and considered a state staple. Heartland Bakes stated that the bierock came from German-Russian Mennonite immigrants in the 1870s…