Empanadas - First attempt

 I have been wanting to try hand pies for awhile. Over the years I have eaten them in places like Scotland and Peru along with the empanadas in the Dallas Farmers' Market from a small vendor.  I had even printed out a recipe from that British baking show but it had a lot of ingredients.  I have also been wanting to bake a custard pie since my Portuguese egg tarts didn't turn out so well even with two attempts.  Both of these food items involve a dough crust.  I have made a few galettes which should have been good practice but somehow dough crusts were a bit daunting.  Go figure. 

Sometimes my baking adventures might seem haphazard but I do try to  alternate sweet and savory.  Making pizza dough no longer counts as I can whip that up so quickly now.  Yes, I did make a batch of pizza dough right before I started my empanada adventures.

A week ago, the empanadas came up on my radar.   I started looking for recipes.   I found the basic dough recipe to try. Laylita's Basic Dough for Baking This recipe says it is for baking and that is why I selected it . . .I prefer baking to frying but frying is probably a bit tastier.  I decided to make the filling an Argentinian version that I found on Bon Appetit Argentinian Style Empanadas .

I made a multiple day project out of this.  First I made the filling then put in the fridge.  The next day I made the dough, let it sit in the fridge before dividing it into equal amounts.  I used the scale I recently bought to get equal (more or less) amounts.

Those balls of dough are about 3 grams. Rolled out they are not very big and created small empanadas.  Not bad for a first try.  I attempted the twisting of the edges which was only partly successful.  They tasted fine but I think I over baked (375F for 25-30 minutes) and the dough seemed rather bland.

This was only half the dough so the next night I took the remaining dough.  I combined 2 balls of dough to get closer to 6 grams of dough to roll out.  I had fewer but bigger empanadas.  This time I brushed the inside of the dough with garlic oil before I added the filling.  I used a fork to crimp the edges then trimmed off excess dough.  I brushed the tops with the garlic oil before popping in the oven (400F for 25 minutes).

I brushed more garlic oil on them after they came out of the oven,  Many recipes call for an egg wash to give the tops a nice brown.  Maybe they look anemic but I think they taste better with the garlic oil.

I am going to do some more exploring on doughs to find one that tastes better.  Maybe more butter or a combination of olive oil or garlic oil with the butter.

I have more recipes to explore for which I have added links below.

Laylita's Empanada's

Empanada Dough 101