I make empanadas a lot. The kids LOVE them, so it's a sure fire winner. My normal empanada dough uses butter and milk. So when my 14 year old asked me to make spicy beef ones, I wasn't sure how to proceed. (My kitchen is kosher, so meat and dairy can't be eaten together.) The Good Housekeeping beef empanada recipe did include a dairy free "flaky turnover" recipe, so I shrugged and decided to try it.
No. Just no. Never, ever again. I'm going to post it here, but don't use it. Use anything else. Eventually I'll make my normal cheese and mushroom empanadas and that pastry is great. THIS pastry is terrible. The filling however, is fantastic. Spicy with bursts of sweetness. We basically ate the filling and not the pastry.
Ingredients
Filling
2 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup golden raisins (I used regular, it was just fine)
2 cups canned tomatoes with juice
Awful, Terrible, "Flaky Turnover" Pastry
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups shortening
Directions
Preheat oven to 425º
To make the filling
In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.
Add chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add garlic, cinnamon, and red pepper.
Mix and then add ground beef and salt.
Cook, still stirring, until beef begins to brown.
Stir in raisins and tomatoes. Increase heat to high and cook until all liquid evaporates. About 10 minutes.
While cooking, break up tomatoes with the back of the spoon. (I had to switch to a metal spoon- plastic did not cut it.)
Remove from heat.
To make the evil pastry
Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Cut shortening into bowl and use two knives to "cut" the shortening through the flour until it looks like coarse crumbs. This is a huge pain to do.
Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough begins to hold together. Transfer to lightly floured surface and knead briefly to form ball.
To put together the empanadas
hahahahahahahahaha
This is where everything went to hell.
Divide dough into fourths.
On lightly floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll one fourth of the pastry less than 1/10 inch thick. That is really thin! A lot of rolling! And this dough? Will NOT like to be rolled. Oh no, this dough is going to BREAK UP, flaking everywhere before it's even baked.
(Can you tell I hated this pastry? This was not a happy time.)
Cut out rounds, as many as possible. I used my trusty cat tea mug.
With metal spatula, carefully transfer pastry rounds to cookie sheet.
Place 2 tablespoons of filling in middle. Fold rounds in half and crimp edges together.
Brush with an egg glaze and bake for 12 minutes.
Repeat with remaining filling and pastry.
This was impossible. The dough just FELL APART. I managed to get 6 - only 6!- rounds and they were NOT THIN. They ripped as soon as I folded them.
I gave up on rolling and used a muffin pan to press the pastry dough into and make sort of beef turnovers. I did not bother with the egg glaze because why put lipstick on a pig.
It was terrible. The pastry did not have a good flavor. To me, pastry made with shortening never does. I will definitely make the filling again, and possibly rework my own empanada dough recipe with dairy-free milk (soy?) and Earth's Best Vegan "butter".
I apologized to all the kids and the hubs. This did not even deserve a pretty plate. I grabbed a kid plate before they poked at it in order to take a picture. It does not deserve even this picture.
DID THEY EAT IT? Filling- ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Pastry- 👿
Kids LOVED the filling. 10 thumbs up for the filling. The hubs went back for seconds on the filling. (There was some left in the skillet, he didn't have to peel off pastry.) Everyone left the pastry on their plate, including me. Save yourselves.
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