Tarts and Pastries ~ Apple Empanadas

Vintage Tart Master Stainless Scalloped Biscuit Tart Cutter Tool

Vintage Tart Master Pastry Crimper and Cutter made in Canadian

 Click here for a brief history on Empanada's

The Empanada ~ A Brief History

 

Basic

Sweet Pastry Dough for Empanadas

This is a quick recipe for sweet pastry dough to use for sweet empanadas; it is very similar to any pastry dough you would use for sweet tarts. You can adjust the amount of sugar based on your preference, also keep in the mind that more sugar a pastry dough has the more fragile it is!  In addition I usually sprinkle sugar on top of the sweet empanadas so try to stay on the low end of the sugar quantity.  You should get about 15-18 medium sized empanada discs or 25-30 small empanada discs.

Dough:

3 cups all purpose flour

¼- ½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 sticks butter or 16 tbs, cut into 16 pieces

2 eggs

2-4 tbs cold water

Preparation:

1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.
2. Add the butter, eggs and water until a clumpy dough forms.
3. Knead the dough for a few minutes.
4. Form dough into 2 balls, flatten into thick discs, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut out round disc shapes for empanadas, use round molds or a small plate or cup as a mold, you can choose how large based on whether you want small or medium sized empanadas .
6. Use the empanada discs immediately or store in the refrigerator or freezer to use later.

For the filling, I decided to cook down the apples first versus filling them raw like apple pies. I thought it would prevent any extra liquid from oozing out and making the empanada dough soggy, and it worked out perfectly.

Apple Filling:

2 tbsp butter

5 medium size apples

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

2 tbsp corn starch, mix with 2-3 tbsp of water until smooth

pinch of salt

2 tbsp of tubinado sugar (optional)

1 egg yolk

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.
2. Add the butter, eggs and water until a clumpy dough forms. (note: dough too dry or too wet will result to cracked empanadas.)
3. Knead the dough for a few minutes.
4. Form dough into 2 balls, flatten into thick discs, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
5. While waiting for the dough to chill, make the apple filling. Peel and core the apples. Cut into 1/2″ or 1/4″ cubes.
6. Over medium heat in a medium size saucepan, add butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and apples. Cook until tender about 10 minutes, stir frequently.
7. add the cornstarch + water mixture to the apples. Cook and stir until the apples start to thicken.
8. Make sure the apple filling is chilled before filling the empanadas. (at least 1 hour in the fridge.)
9. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet (1/4″-1/8″ thickness) and cut out round disc shapes for empanadas, use round molds or a small plate or cup as a mold, you can choose how large based on whether you want small or medium sized empanadas . (note: 5″ round molds make medium size empanadas, fits 1 tbsp of filling inside. )
10. Put ~1 tbsp of apple filling in the center of the dough. Wet the dough circumference with water, fold the circle in half, pat down to push out excess air, pinch and flatten the edge tightly to seal. Using a fork to crimp the edge.
11. Refrigerate the formed empanadas for at least 30 minutes. The empanadas can be chilled for several hours prior to baking.
12. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
13. Brush the empanadas with egg yolk (mix with a tsp of water).
14. Optional: Sprinkle the empanadas with turbinado sugar. (maybe even mix the sugar with some cinnamon)
15. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy the empanadas warm, a la mode is the best.
16. Refrigerate the baked empanadas, and they will keep for quite a few days.
17. Reheat in a toaster oven and voila!

Note:  There are different ways to seal up the empanadas. They will turn out better if you prevent the syrup from the apple filling from oozing out.  I think you get the idea from the two pictures above. 

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 Some nice vintage inter stacking pastry cutters for your tart making adventures!