Empanadas!

Is it just me or does everyone else run out of ideas for dinner by the time Friday rolls around? Even though I have a monthly menu plan I always end up pulling something out of the air come Friday; maybe it's because I'm secretly hoping to get out of cooking. Junk food Friday anyone ;)

Well this particular Friday my menu said pizza rolls, but I wasn't in the mood for pizza so I decided to go digging through my cookbooks & magazines for something to try. After about 10 magazines, I came up on a recipe for beef brisket empanadas in Saveur. The picture looked so good & the description sounded so delicious that I decided to give it a shot. It also helped that Little Miss was sleeping & the boys were playing a no-mommy-required game. So with the window of opportunity open, I dived right in.

First things first, I made the dough. Now I despise making pastry dough, not sure why...I just do. But this dough was easy enough & I managed to pull through. Maybe there's hope for me yet :)

Next was the filing. Seeing as I started this experiment about 4pm there was no way I was making brisket, not to mention the fact that I didn't have brisket anyway <hehehe> So I dug through the fridge & came up with 3 different fillings: pulled chicken, guacamole, and pepper jam. Why 3 you ask? Well I didn't have enough of any particular one to use up all the dough. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention!

Chicken

Guacamole & Cheese

Pepper Jam & Cheese

Well, after a massive rolling, filling, and frying session, I ended up with 24 empanadas. They were all tasty, but the grown ups liked the guacamole and cheese the best. Surprisingly so did the boys. I think the least successful was the jam/cheese combo, but that's mainly because frying jam makes it melt so it was a molten mess inside. I reiterate, MOLTEN...if you opt for a jam filling, make sure you let them cool before eating one. Just trust me on this...

So now that you've heard all about my experiment, give it a shot & let me know what fillings you come up with. Enjoy!

All Done

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Empanadas
Ingredients
4 cups flour
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
1½ tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste
1½ cups warm water
Fillings of your choice (shredded chicken, taco beef, cheese, etc.)
Oil for frying

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, butter, and salt. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour mixture until pea-size crumbles form. Add the warm water and stir until a dough forms.* Knead the dough in the bowl until it is smooth, about 4 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Once your fillings are all set, take the dough out of the fridge & divide into 24 balls. Place the balls on a work surface and flatten each ball into a 5in disk, using either the heel of your hand or a rolling pin. Brush the edges of each disc with water and place 2 tbsp. filling in the center. Fold the disks in half to form half-moons and seal edges together using the tines of a fork. Refrigerate the empanadas for at least 1 hour. (I didn't refrigerate mine because like I said, I was under a time crunch.)

Pour about 2in of oil into a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 350°. (If you don't have a thermometer then do like I do and drop a small piece of dough into the oil. If the dough starts to fry, then the oil is ready. If not, wait until the dough starts to fry before adding your empanadas.) Fry the empanadas in batches until browned and crisp, about 6 minutes per batch. Drain the empanadas on paper towels before serving. (Or if you're a hippie like me you can use old paper bags instead of paper towels and then toss them in the recycle bin. Yep, we're making the kitchen experience green one recipe at a time!)

*Alternately, you could make the dough using a food processor or a stand-mixer. If you're using a food processor, add all the dry ingredients to the bowl & mix. Then add the butter and mix until crumbles form. Add the water and pulse the mixture until dough forms. Make sure you pulse otherwise you'll overheat the dough and melt the butter, making it very sticky and hard to work with. To make the dough in a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients tot he mixer bowl and stir together. Next, add the butter and mix on low until crumbles form. Add the water and mix on low just until the dough pulls together. Once you have the ball of dough, knead by hand until smooth and continue following the directions above.