Baked Empanadas

When I was growing up, my family usually made fried empanadas which we called Pastellios (pas-tell-ee-yos). They were made at every party and on any occasion. Everyone loves Pastellios!

Nowadays, I've changed the recipe and started to bake them. I call the baked ones Empanadas because thats what alot of people call them, but the fried ones will always be called Pastellios to me. Either way, they are both delicious and extemely affordable. I can easily make 50 Empanadas with $15 dollars. The best part is that you can freeze them after they have cooled, and reheat them in the oven or microwave whenever you want.
You can also change the recipe for the filling. They can be sweet, savory, meat or vegetable.

Baked Beef Empanadas

Crust:

3 cups Sifted All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1/2 cup Cold Shortening
1/2 cup Margarine (1 stick) or Butter
1/2 cup Ice cold water

Sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder into a large bowl. Cut the butter in small chunks into the flour mixture. Add the shortening in, and with your fingertips, work the butter and shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs (work quickly, this dough needs to be cold and not overworked or it will become tough). Slowly add the water in until it all comes together into a ball. Put the ball of dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and cover it completely. Press the ball down to a disc shape and place in the refrigerator overnight (this really ensures a great tasting crust).

Filling:

1 pound Ground Beef
1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
1/2 teaspoon Homemade Adobo
1 Beef Boullion Cube
1/2 cup Hot water
1/4 cup Plain Breadcrumbs
1 Egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of water

In a skillet, brown the ground beef well (if the beef is very lean, add 1 tablespoon Olive oil). Next, add the thyme, adobo, and boullion cube stirring them in with the beef. Then add the hot water making sure the boullion cube dissolves well (you may add a bit more water if needed). Finally, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the beef mixture and stir quickly. Remove the pan from heat and let it cool completely.

Remove the dough disk from the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes while you dust your counter/workplace with flour. Place the disk on the floured surface and dust your rolling pin as well. Roll the dough out working from the center outward until the dough is 1/4" thick. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out as many discs as it can from the entire rolled out dough. Remove the discs and place them in the refrigerator until you are finished rolling out the rest of the dough and getting as many discs from it as possible.

With the flat disc in front of you, brush the edges with the eggwash that you prepared earlier. Place a tablespoon full of beef filling in the center and fold the disc in half, sealing the edges with a fork. Do this with all of the remaining discs and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 415 degrees. Brush the Empanadas with the eggwash and poke a hole in the tops of each one. Bake 30-40 minutes.

*This is a very basic recipe. I usually add sofrito to the filling and Achiote Oil in the dough to give it a pretty orange color. You can easily make these into Jamaican beef patties just by adding curry powder to the dough and minced scotch bonnett peppers and onion to the filling.

*If making dough from scratch is too much of a task, you can use ready-made pie crust from the store and Goya makes frozen discs just for empanadas (found in most freezer isles).