So I was just craving for this Empanadas and I did quite a lot of research on how to make a dough and I figured it is the same dough as our regular pie dough so I made some and it did turn out quite good. I stored some in freezer and oven bake again when I feel like having some (I don't have much left, it's that good).
Here is my recipe, you can use whatever filling you want and any kind of meat or vegetable as you may prefer but I stick to the authentic recipe of how the South American would make it. Enjoy! :)
Dough: (Makes about 20 - 22 pieces)
- All purpose flour: 3 cups
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Cold water: 1/2 cup
- Egg 2
- Apple Cedar Vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Unsalted butter (Cold, cut in cubes): 3 tbsp
Filling:
- Ground beef: 1 kilogram
- Onion (chopped finely): 1
- Tomatoes (Drain out the liquid and seeds, slice in small cubes): 2
- Garlic (chopped finely): 2 cloves
- Paprika: 1 tbsp
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Pepper: 1 tsp
- Olive oil: 1 bsp
- Tomato puree: 3 tbsp
- Beef broth: 1/2 cup
- Vegetable oil (For frying): 2 - 3 liters
- Water in a bowl with a brush (for sealing the dough)
Process:
- In a small mixing bowl, add eggs, water, vinegar together combine well and set aside.
- In separate bowl, place All purpose flour, salt, mix well.
- Add cubed butter and use your hand to combine all together, it looks like it will not combine but just keep doing, it will be combined and looking like a sand. :) (P.S: Make sure you dust your working surface with flour so it does not stick everywhere).
- When everything is well combined, add wet ingredient that we put aside just now, mix well. If it's too wet to you, add some small amount of flour at a time, it should come together like a dough.
- Plastic wrap it tightly, place in ziplock bag and refrigerator for the dough to set for an hour.
- To make the filling: in a pan, medium heat, add onion let it cook until it is cooked caramelized a little, add garlic until fragrance then add ground beef.
- Add on the seasonings: salt, peppers, paprika. Let it cook for 5 minutes, add in tomatoes and tomato puree and beef broth. Let it cook and simmer for a bit until the liquid is reduced.
- Taste, it should taste something peppery and smoky from the paprika.
Assembling time:
- Once your dough is out of the refrigerator, it will feel a little hard, let it sit out at room temperature for 5 minutes or so. Dust your working surface with flour, cut your dough into half, plastic wrap the other half and put it back in the fridge (You will take a while to finish this batch); roll out your dough with the rolling pin. (This is the most torture part of making this recipe, rolling out the dough is quite a work but do think of it as the arms workout. Hehe)
- Empanadas's dough is usally very thing and flaky, try to roll it out as thin as you can but not too thin that you could see through your surface though.
- I didn't have a round cookie cutter, so i used a small bowl to get the edgy round cut and just bladed my knife around it and it was a perfect cut every time.
- Once you are done with cutting your dough, make sure you cover it with a clean clothe or plastic wrap, to prevent from drying out the dough.
- Heat up your frying pan with enough vegetable oil to cover at least half.
- I actually wrap the empanadas as i go because I did not want the dough the melt (It contains lots of butter), as you work with the dough, you will realize it does shrink at time, so you have to roll out as you go as well.
- Place the filling on the upper part of the dough (leave the edge), brush water around the edges, close it and press it with your finger.
- I did tug in and shape my dough as the "original style" you can do it however you like, using a fork to seal the edges as you may prefer.
- To form the edges, all you need to do is fold it the dough and press, fold in and press until the end. (Sorry, I didn't take a picture of my own work so I had to googled this part).
- As you finish, just dump into the oil and let it cook for 4 minutes on each side, once it's golden brown then it's done. It does not require too much time for frying since the filling is already cooked.
- I hope you find this recipe as delicious as I did, I had to freeze some of mine in the freezer and I'd oven bake them the next time I want to eat. This also helps the dough even more crispier and drains out the access oil. Enjoy! :)
