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Empanadas for Daring bakers September edition




Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

"An empanada (or empada, in Portuguese) is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread" -source wikipedia

I think of an empanada as a variation of Indian samosa... anyhoo on to the recipe
  
Empanada Dough

(a recipe using wheat flour from “La Empanada Gallega”)

Servings: 6

Ingredients

3½ cups (500 gm) all-purpose (plain) or bread flour
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
½ cup less 1 tablespoon (100 ml) of liquid fat (oil, margarine, lard)
1 satchel (1 tablespoon) (15 gm) dry yeast or (1 oz) (30 gm) fresh yeast
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1 teaspoon (3 gm) sweet paprika

Method

  1. Shift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and add all the ingredients (you should break the fresh yeast as much as possible).
  2. Mix with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients have been incorporated
  3. Turn dough onto your counter and knead for 8 minutes (You can also use in this case the stand mixer, reduce kneading time to 5 minutes)
  4. Make a ball and allow to rise covered with a cloth for about an hour before using.
  5. Once risen, turn the dough back into a floured counter and cut it in half. Cover one half with the napkin to prevent drying.
  6. Spread the other half of the dough using a rolling pin. You can use a piece of wax paper over the counter, it will make it easier to move the dough around. Depending on the shape of your oven pan or cookie sheet, you will make a rectangle or a round.
Now, the thinness of the dough will depend on your choice of filling and how much bread you like in every bite. For your first time, make it about 3mm thin (about 1/10th of an inch) and then adjust from that in the next ones you make. 

I cut individual rounds using cookie cutter; added my filling and sealed the ends with a moistened fork.

Baked at 350 F for about 25 minutes

Cool and enjoy

I actually froze most of mine!

For the filling

1 minced red onion
2 tbsp minced ginger
about 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups pressure cooked black beans
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
(I had frozen beans from last week-so I thawed both beans and corn and strained them to remove the extra liquid)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 tbsp dry roasted cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 serrano, chopped finely
salt to taste

Saute the onions, serrano chillies, ginger and garlic in about 2 tbsp oil. Once the onions are translucent, add the beans, corn, powders, salt and saute them until the corn has browned a bit. Finally add the chopped parsley.

Your filling is ready!

Judgement

Thanks Patri- for this make ahead, freezer- friendly, insanely creative challenge! I already have so many fillings in mind...
I feel like it is not easy to go wrong with this one...yippee

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