Empanadas de Manzana

If you want to learn something, teach it! It's immeasurable how much I've learned about ingredients and cooking since I started this blog. By showing you, my readers, what I cook, you have taught me how to become better at it, and have inspired me to investigate and plunge into new areas of cooking.

I have posted several recipes for empanadas this year, each time using a different recipe for the crust.  I felt I had enough confidence to venture off on my own without a recipe at hand and prepare an empanada dough. I managed to make these apple empanadas from scratch using the ingredients I had at hand and my new-found confidence.

For the Dough:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
4 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
2 tbsp Crisco shortening
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ice water

In a large bowl mix all your ingredients together using a fork. I know you may think there has to be a certain order to incorporating the ingredients, but that is really not the case, at least not for these. Work the dough as much as possible with the fork before putting your hands in there, gathering it and kneading it to form a large ball. Separate the dough into 2 balls, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour (more time would be better, even the next day).

For the Filling:
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces (I had one Granny Smith and 3 Red Delicious)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 squeeze of lemon juice

Mix all these ingredients in a bowl. Chop your apples finely. (Do as I say, not as I did) because large chunks will break through the dough.

To assemble:
1 egg, beaten


Heat oven to 350. Take out the refrigerated dough. Unwrap one ball and separate in half, then in half again and in half again so that you have 8 sections. From these into small bowls. Sprinkle flour a clean surface an roll out each small ball into a circular shape (sort of circular, it won't be exact). Place about 1 tablespoon of your apple filling in the center of your empanada. Fold over, press the sides together, then pinch and fold up as you go. (I'm not very good at this, it requires practice, do the best you can.) or you can press the edges together with a fork. Repeat. You will have a total of 16 empanadas (8 from each orginal ball). At this point you can freeze some for baking at another time.

Place your empanadas on a baking dish and brush on your egg wash. Pinch them on top a couple of with a toothpick.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.