Oven Baked Bacon Cheeseburger with Maple Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 5 mL (1 teaspoon) salt
• 5 mL (1 teaspoon) ground black pepper
• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) Worchester sauce
• 910 grams (2 pounds) ground beef
• 125 mL (1/2 cup) fine, dry bread crumbs
• olive oil (for frying)
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced into thin strips or thin circles
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 package bacon
• 8 slices cheddar cheese
• optional toppings: ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, Worchester, salt, and pepper.
3. Place ground beef and bread crumbs into the mixture, and with your hands or a fork, mix until well blended.
4. Form into eight patties, each about 2 cm (3/4-inch) thick.
5. *Note: At this point, you can cook patties on the grill as usual, however, if you want to bake them continue following the instructions below.
6. In a large pan, saute burgers on high head in a drizzle of olive oil for about 1 minute on each side, or just until browned.
7. Transfer burgers to a baking dish with a drip pan. This will allow the grease to drip away from the meat.
8. Place your pan or dish on the top rack of your oven, near the center.
9. Bake your burgers for 15 to 18 minutes or until the patties brown all the way through.
10. In the meanwhile, take 8-16 pieces of bacon (depending on how much bacon you want on each burger), and frying them on a large pan with a lid over medium/high heat, flipping once after 5 minutes or so.
11. To caramelize your onions, in a second pan, fry onions in butter until soft.
12. Pour maple syrup onto onions and let cook for another 5 minutes.
13. Remove the sheet of burgers from the oven, and add cheddar cheese, bacon and caramelized onions and put back into the oven for two minutes to let
14. To toast buns, cut buns in half, and place face down onto wire rack.
15. Toast in oven for 3-4 minutes on a high shelf until just lightly brown.
16. Fill burger buns with toppings of choice.