Adapted from a recipe by Lauren Allen on TastesBetterfromScratch.com

Dough can be made up to a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator

 For the dough: (makes about 20 regular size empanadas*)

• 4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter , room temperature
• 1 egg , beaten
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• ¾ – 1 cup warm water
• Egg wash ( 1 egg mixed with 1 Tbsp water)

*This depends on who’s making the empanadas. Our newbie crew made fewer.

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 white onions , chopped (about 4 cups) (I used one white, one yellow onion)
• 3 cloves garlic , minced
• ½ of a red bell pepper , diced
• ½ (or ¼) jalapeño, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 2 Tablespoons sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon beef bouillon (I made a cup from cubes)
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bunch green onions , just the green part, finely chopped
• ½ cup chopped green olives
• ½ cup fresh chopped parsley or carrot tops
• 3 hard boiled eggs , peeled and finely chopped

Instructions

For the meat filling:

1. Heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add garlic and diced red pepper, and jalapeño if you are using it. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Add chili powder, cumin, sweet paprika, and oregano. Cook for 2 minutes.
3. Increase heat to medium and add the ground beef. Season with salt and pepper and cook, crumbling into small pieces, until browned. Stir in beef boullion.
4. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a bowl to cool for 10 minutes. Then, stir in green onion, olives, parsley, and hard-boiled eggs.
5. Cover and chill mixture for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days (depending on freshness of ingredients). It’s important that the mixture is chilled before filling the empanadas.

For the empanada dough:

1. Add flour and salt to a large bowl and stir to combine. Add egg and butter and stir well to combine. Add oil and warm water and stir until the mixture starts to come together into a dough ball. Add more water if it’s too dry.
2. Place dough in clean greased bowl and cover tightly. Allow to rest at room temperature for 1 hour. (Or, refrigerate for up to 1 day, removing from the fridge 20 minutes before using.)

Assembly:

1. Divide the dough into two pieces. On a greased countertop roll each piece into a very large circle, about 1/8in thick (not so thin that it might break when filling or baking).
2. Use a small bowl or round cookie cutters to cut the dough into circles about 6in in diameter for regular size empanadas or 3 inch for mini empanadas (empanaditas).
3. Remove the excess dough from around the cut circles and keep the circles where they are for filling them (so they hold their perfect circle shape). Leftover scraps can be re-rolled to make more dough to cut out.
4. Place about 2 tablespoons of filling (for regular size empanadas) in the center of each circle, leaving plenty of space around the border. Moisten the edges of the circle with water, then fold the dough over and match the ends together to form a semi-circle.
5. Pinch the edges together and then seal the ends by crimping them with a fork or pinching and twisting/folding it over.
6. Baked Empanadas: Place empanadas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with a little bit of egg wash and bake at 375° For 25-30 minutes until golden brown and fully cooked.

I prefer baked empanadas, but you can also fry them in hot oil (chill assembled empanadas first) 1 – 2 minutes per side until golden. (Check the web for detailed information)