A meal in your hand!
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My first experience with an empanada was in Houston, Texas at a food festival. A man in one of the booths served me one. We started talking and it turns out he has a local TV show on Saturday afternoons, targeting Latin American culture. When he found out I was teaching English as a Second Language to many Latin American children, he asked me to come on his TV show! That empanada made me an instant TV star!
A few decades later (and no empanada eating), we moved to Uruguay - home of many empanadas! I now make them all the time - either from scratch or from the ready-made dough readily available in Uruguay. |
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Dough Mix:
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup masa corn flour (masa harina) 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 c melted butter 1 c water or less to consistency 1 large egg plus 1 tbsp water (for egg wash) |
Filling Suggestions:
cooked steak or chicken, chopped cooked ground beef or turkey raisins cheese potatoes, cooked and cubed small carrots, cubed and cooked onion, chopped and cooked garlic, minced and cooked |
Dough Instructions:
- In a large bowl, sift together: flour, corn flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Melt butter and stir into the flour mixture.
- Slowly add 1/2 cup of water, blending it with your hands to mix. If it is sticky, add more water until it's easy to handle and doesn't stick to your hands.
- Shape dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.
- Make your filling ahead of time or right now. See Empanada Filling Recipes. Then cool the filling a bit. This is necessary so the hot filling doesn't make the dough wrapper "melt" open in places.
- When you're ready to fill the empanada dough, remove it from the fridge. Take a bit of the dough and roll it in your hand to form a 2- inch diameter ball.
- Place the dough ball on a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper. With a spatula, press the dough ball into a circle about 1/4 thick.
- Place a tablespoonful of the filling (See suggestions above.) in the center of the circle. Fold it in half and close the edges with your fingers.
- Crimp the edges with a fork or pinch with your fingers, so the filling doesn't leak out.
- Place on a greased cookie sheet or one that has been covered with parchment paper.
- Make many more until you run out of dough!
- Mix the egg and water for the egg wash. Brush each empanada with the wash.
- Bake at 350° oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown.