Around The Table: Empanadas!

Last year three lovely women from Argentina moved into the townhouse next to ours. They had come to the US for a one year work exchange program. One evening there was a knock at our door, and when I opened it, there stood one of the Argentinian women holding a plate piled high with empanadas. It was the sweetest neighborly gesture Zach and I had ever received. We had just finished dinner, so the only logical thing to do was to carefully wrap them up and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. Instead we ate them all while hovering over the plate in the kitchen like ravenous dogs. They were delicious. And authentic. Even now, my mouth is watering while I write this.

Needless-to-say, my husband and I are huge fans of empanadas. I had never tried to make them from scratch myself, but I've made some pretty mean pies in my day, and an empanada is essentially a hand pie with meat and spices instead of fruit, so I felt confident I could pull it off.

I found a recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me years ago called Home Cooking with Amy Coleman (Vol 2)

The recipe is below and includes my adjustments and process.

Empanada Dough
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup ice water

To make the dough, combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, or pulse in a food processor.

Add the eggs and water and gently work the mixture together until it forms a ball; or pulse in a food processor until ingredients just combine into a loose ball. Remove dough from bowl or food processor and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Thankfully, I had the forethought to make the dough in the morning (for once!). It mixed up rather quickly in my food processor, which I love using for any type of pie dough because the blade cuts through the fat (butter in this case) really well and prevents overworking in my opinion. If you overwork your crust it can become tough instead of tender and flaky. I then wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge until I was ready to roll it out later that day.

Later that day...

Beef Empanada Filling
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (didn't have so I used red pepper flakes instead)
1/2 lb ground beef (I used leftover steak)
2 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (I used 1 tsp and it was still rather strong)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 canned plumb tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (I had parsley so I used that instead)
2 tsp fresh lime juice

egg wash: 1 egg, well beaten with a pinch of salt

I started by chopping half an onion and about half a pound of leftover steak from a previous dinner. I also minced two cloves of garlic.

I then remembered I needed a hard-boiled egg for the filling, but it seemed wasteful to just boil one, so I boiled a whole pot of them and made deviled eggs with the rest.

While I was waiting for the eggs to finish boiling, I sautéd the onions and garlic in a small amount of olive oil.

At this point, if you're using raw ground beef (as recipe calls for) you'll want to cook it with the onion until it has lost all pink color. I used steak that was already cooked so I skipped this step. You will also want to add the jalapeno at this point. I didn't have one, so I added a couple dashes of red pepper flakes instead. Once the meat is cooked, remove it from the heat and add the remaining ingredients. It should look something like this:

You want the filling to cool completely before building the empanadas.

At this point in the process, I got distracted by rolling out dough and making the empanadas look nice, so I forgot to take pictures, but this is what I did...

Note: before you begin rolling out the dough, get your egg wash and brush ready and set aside.

Basically, I divided the dough into quarters and then worked with one quarter at a time so it was more manageable. I rolled each piece into a small ball and than flattened it slightly before rolling it out on a floured surface. You want the dough to be about 1/16 of an inch thick which is pretty darn thin if you ask me. But it resulted in a better dough-to-filling ratio and allowed for more empanadas (Yaah!). I then used a glass, measuring roughly 3 inches in diameter, to cut out small rounds of dough that I filled with a generous teaspoon of filling.

At this point I realized this recipe was actually an appetizer, not a main dish as I was intending to use it, so I decided to make some of the empanadas larger. It sort of turned into one big experiment, which is how one learns, so I was okay with that.

Okay, back to the filling. I placed a tsp of filling on one side of the dough circle and then brushed a little egg wash around half of the circle edge. I then folded the dough over the filling and pressed lightly to seal. Just to be thorough, I went around the edges with a fork to give them a nice crimped edge and to make sure they were sealed. I then brushed the tops lightly with egg wash.

I placed the empanadas on a baking sheet (according to the recipe, it should not be air-cushioned.) lined with parchment paper and baked them on the center rack of a 350 degree oven for for 12 to 14 minutes. And this is what I ended up with...

I think they turned out pretty good. Zach really liked them, which is always a good litmus test for me. He has a pretty high standard, so I felt good that he enjoyed them.

If you make these, I'd love to hear about your experiences and what modifications you made. Enjoy!