A trip to the local farmer’s market always gives me ideas or ingredients with which to create something delicious to share on the blog. This week it’s Empanadas. One booth has the best sourdough bread. Their cinnamon swirl bread makes great French toast and their perfect baguettes are great on my French Onion Soup. But on the side, they also sell an empanada of the week. My inspiration for this post came about after eating their Thai and Chorizo empanadas. I couldn’t go another week without having more! Therefore, another food quest begins.
Empanada Dough:(Source: Epicurious)
To ensure its flakiness, frozen butter was grated into the sifted flour and salt, Then chilled in fridge for a bit. Beat the egg, water and white vinegar together and pour within a well in the center of the flour mixture. Using a fork, mix to bring the dough together; it will be shaggy in appearance as shown below.
Pour it onto a pastry mat and briefly knead together and form a rectangle; place within a sheet of plastic wrap and seal tightly. Looking closely, you can see the flecks of butter which will help create those flaky layers within this pastry. Chill for one hour.
Unwrap it from the plastic and cut it into 12 blocks. If you have a scale, weigh first, then divide by 12 to ensure equal sizes. Adjust as necessary. Look at those flecks of butter below in the second pic. I can hardly wait! This can be made a day ahead of time to shorten the actual preparation on the day you plan to finish making the empanadas.
Roll them into balls. If you can’t weigh them, eyeball their sizes. Place one in the center of a floured mat at a time and roll it around to coat in flour. (These were approximately 1.65 oz each.)
Flatten the ball and begin to roll out it to measure 5 inches in diameter, rotating and flipping dough. This pastry mat helped because of the concentric circles marked with measurements. Once it was within the 6″ mark, I measured and smoothed out edges.
Fill the center with one level large scoop then center it lengthwise as shown. Wet the edges then hold in one hand as you press to seal with the other.
Starting at the bottom, press edges up and in yielding a rope-like effect. Tuck the end under.
Coat with an egg wash an refrigerate on the pan for about 30 minutes. Bake in a 400F oven for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown.
Empanada Filling:
For the filling, first start with sauteing the onions in olive oil until softened, then add the HOT(spicy) pork sausage. Cook until no longer pink. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and stir to combine.
Stir in 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika followed by the cream.
Next, add in the corn and rice, stirring to equally distribute.
Remove from the burner and allow it to cool off. Add the grated Pepper Jack Cheese into the cooled mixture and stir to combine. At this point it is ready to use as a filling. You can either use it if you are ready to fill the empanadas, or store in the fridge. This will probably make more than what you need for the 12 empanadas. Save the rest to top a baked potato or to add to an omelette or maybe mix with some hash browns. Yum!
Empanadas
Ingredients
Empanada Dough:
- 2 1/4 c all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 t salt
- 1/2 c (1 stick) frozen unsalted butter
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/3 c water
- 1 T white vinegar
Empanada Filling:
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
- 2/3 c finely chopped red onion
- 1 pound HOT (spicy) sausage I used Jimmy Dean pork sausage
- 3/4 t red pepper flakes
- 2 t smoked paprika
- 1/4 c heavy cream
- 3/4 c sweet corn
- 1 c white, Jasmine, rice, cooked
- 8 oz block of pepper Jack Cheese, grated
Instructions
- Sift together the flour and the salt. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes
- Grate frozen butter, about 1/4 stick at a time, and toss into flour mixture. Repeat until all butter is grated. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
- Whisk together the egg, water and vinegar.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the egg/water mixture. Combine with a fork until just incorporated. It should appear "shaggy".
- Dump it onto a pastry mat and knead a few times to help press it together into a rectangular shape. Wrap in tightly in plastic and chill for an hour in the fridge.
- Cut chilled dough into 12 equal sections and roll into balls. A scale would help, otherwise eyeball them when you are done rolling and the adjust. Chill balls in fridge for another 30 minutes.
- Take out 2 balls from fridge at a time. On a floured surface, flatten ball and roll it into a 5" diameter circle.
- Place one leveled large scoop of filling in each and form it lengthwise in the center. Wet the edges of the circle. Pick up the empanada with one hand and press edges closed with the other. Crimp by starting at one end and fold up and in the sealed edges, appearing almost rope-like. Fold under excess at the end. Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil.
- Brush an egg wash over top and sealed edges. Chill in fridge for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake the chilled empanadas for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown.
Empanada Filling:
- Saute onions in olive oil until softened.
- Add in sausage and cook until crumbled and no longer pink.
- Mix in red pepper flakes and smoked paprika
- Blend in heavy cream. Once combined, add in corn and rice. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
- Stir grated cheese into cooled mixture. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.
