Empanadas: Inside the Bread
Filling (Made the night before and stored in the fridge, for maximum tasty):
80/20 Ground Beef
Diced Green Onions
Leftover fatty top round beef roast
Habaneros
Half a diced onion
1 large diced carrot
A buncha garlic, paprika, chili powder, and other tasty bois
Salt, lots of salt
Dough:
500g Flour
165g Butter
13g Salt
175g Luke warm water
- Combine flour, butter, and salt until they feel like greasy sand.
- Add 175g Water when sand’ified.
- Knead until smooth (5–10min), will be a shaggy nightmare for the first few minutes.
- Cover and refrigerate until cold and hard (1–2 hours)
Roll half the dough out into a thin sheet and cut rounds with a coffee mug. Refrigerate after cutting the rounds for 15–20min.
Roll each round out when they are cold and hard. Fill with fillings. I like using a heaping teaspoon of the chilled filling for each one.
Egg wash after forming, arrange on a silpat or nonstick surface, refrigerate completed empanadas for 15–20 before baking
450f hot as heck oven, 7min intervals between cracking the door and rotating each empanada. Plate and cool for 10–15min before serving.
Lessons learned:
- Work with the dough only when fully chilled, dont try to crimp the dough closed when its warm.
- Add more fat to the filling. Diced potatoes would have been good too.
- Dunk the entire empanada in egg wash, dont brush on. Brushing left lines.
- Crimping technique needs so much work… Keep on truckin’.