April 8th is National Empanada Day!! I have no idea who comes up with these national food days, but I’ll celebrate!!
Empanadas are Latin American or Spanish pastries. They are typically filled with ground meat and/or vegetables or fruit. They can be savory or sweet, baked or fried. I came up with 4 empanada recipes and 3 sauces that you can dip them in. I really only “came up with” 2 sauces as the marinara sauce on the left is from a jar…shhh ( ;
All Empanadas Recipes:
Supreme Pizza Empanadas, paired with marinara sauce – these empanadas have all your pizza favorites: peppers, onions, pepperoni, mushrooms, garlic and mozzarella cheese.
Spanish Beef Empanadas, paired with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce – these are inspired from a burger recipe I won a contest with, La Taverna Tapas Burger. They have ground beef, olives, garlic, roasted peppers and a touch of smoked paprika.
Very Veggie Empanadas, paired with Gruyere Cheese Sauce – these are vegetarian empanadas filled with spinach, mushrooms and roasted peppers.
Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas, also paired with Gruyere Cheese Sauce – these are a new version of an empanada recipe I had created a while ago. They have spinach, crimini mushrooms, bacon and a touch of marsala wine.
To keep this post from being miles long, I’m going to post how to make the dough and the ingredients for all the fillings and sauces. For the complete recipes just click on the “Printable Recipe” links toward the bottom of the post.
Empanada Dough
Pulse together flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening in your food processor. Drizzle in an egg yolk beaten with water. Pulse until a ball forms. Knead the ball a few times on a floured surface, form into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Shortcut: If you’re short on time…use pre-made refrigerated piecrust. You can also check the Latin section of the frozen foods case at your grocer. I have seen frozen empanada wrappers.
While your dough chills, pick a filling and a sauce to make.
Supreme Pizza Empanadas Filling
Saute onion, mushrooms, pepperoni, garlic, roasted peppers. Allow to cool, then stir in mozzarella cheese.
Spanish Beef Empanadas Filling
Saute lean ground beef, onions, garlic, roasted red peppers and stir in halved Manzanilla pimiento stuffed olives.
Very Veggie Empanadas Filling
Saute onions, garlic, mushrooms, spinach and roasted red peppers. Stir in some parmesan cheese.
Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas Filling
Saute thick cut bacon, onion, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, then add a little marsala wine. Finish with some parmesan cheese.
Gruyere Cheese Sauce
Make a roux with butter and flour. Add dry mustard, salt and white pepper. Stir in milk. Whisk until thickened. Add shredded Gruyere cheese and stir until melted.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Blend cream cheese are roasted red peppers in a food processor. Add salt, garlic and smoked paprika. Process until smooth.
Portion & Roll Dough
Cut your chilled dough in half. Roll each half into a cylinder. Cut each cylinder into 6 equal pieces. Roll the 12 pieces into balls and flatten slightly with your hand.
Fill & Form Your Empanadas
Roll each flattened ball into a 6-inch round. Fill with about 3 tablespoons filling. Fold over and pinch closed to form semi-circular shape. Press a fork around the edge to help seal and trim around the edge with a pizza wheel. Place on parchment lined baking sheet (I baked mine on an ungreased pan, but some of mine stuck from the egg wash – so I recommend lining the pan with parchment.) Brush with an egg wash and bake for 15-19 minutes or until golden browned.
All Empanadas Recipes:
Empanada Party: 4 Fillings + 3 Sauces = YUM!
Ingredients
For Dough:
- 2 cups flour plus extra for rolling
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter chilled
- 6 tablespoons vegetable shortening chilled & cut into small pieces
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup cold water plus extra if needed
Egg Wash:
- 1 egg.
- ‘1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Prepare Dough:
- Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt and sugar in food processor bowl. Pulse a few times to combine.
- Add butter and shortening and pulse about 8 times until a coarse meal texture is formed.
- In small bowl, whisk egg yolk and 1/2 cup cold water.
- Slowly pour into food processor while running.
- When the dough starts to come together, remove to floured surface and knead a few times until dough is smooth (if the dough seems too crumbly, add another tablespoon or two of water.)
- Form dough into a disk. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. *Note when short on time you can use pre-made frozen empanada discs or refrigerated pie dough.
Assemble & Bake:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Cut dough disk in half.
- Roll each half into a 6 inch long cylinder.
- Cut each cylin 6 equal pieces.
- Roll each piece into a ball.
- Slightly flatten dough ball with your hand.
- Dust both sides with flour and roll in a 5-6 inch diameter circle. The dough should be less than 1/4 inch thick.
- Spoon about 2-3 rounded tablespoc filling into the center, fold the top to meet the bottom and press with your fingers or a fork to seal edge.
- Trim excess dough, will form half-circle shape.
- Place on a large baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Repeat until all empanadas are formed
- Whisk egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush empanadas with egg wash.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown.
They all sound delicious and what great photos 🙂 congrats too to Julie! Love the book!
Thanks Dani!! You should see what my camera looked like with all the flour and fillings!! ( :
So cute, love these!
Thanks Cathy!! ( :
hey all look incredible! We’ll be over at 6:00 with a bottle of Rosé.
Now that’s a deal!! ( :
Got the empanada truck ready yet??
Tina, These look really yummy! I love how you showed us step-by-step in the pictures! Great website!! Thanks!!
Thanks Kristen!! The pictures are helpful with explaining!! Glad u enjoyed ( :
Great Great and Yummy Yummy blog! I just received my copy of Julie’s book ~ now your blog has totally inspired me to make empanadas. Thanks!!
Hi Merry!! Thanks for stopping by!! Congrats again on your amazing Scharffen Berger Cookie win!! What a great cookie you came up with!! Well done!!
YUM, Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas with Gruyere Cheese Sauce sounds fantastic, mmmmmmmm!!
Yes, don’t think we ever turn down a cheese sauce!! ( :
Love the Gruyere Sauce (my favorite cheese). I can’t choose which empanada I like best, so I’m just gonna have to have my own Empanada party and make them all!
That’s a great idea Kari!! Was a fun dinner eating them all!! YUM!! ( :
We love empandas and these are making my mouth water! Yumm!!!
Thank you!! I could go for a few right now!! ( :
wow, I came across this post and I was excited. Apparently you no longer share these recipes. I shall go cry somewhere.
Hi Kathy! – Thanks so much for stopping by and catching my error!! I recently moved all my recipes to this new site and I must’ve missed the delicious empanadas!! I will get them posted ASAP!! Stop back in a day or so! Take care!
Hi Again Kathy! I was able to find them on an archive website – Whew!! They are posted again… Thanks again for catching my error!
Thank you! And congratulations on becoming the Kitchen-Aid representative cook on QVC; they are lucky to have someone with your talent and imagination.
Thanks so much! I love it! <3
Tina, I wasn’t able to see the last link, Printable Recipe: Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas w/ Gruyere Cheese Sauce. I hope you can retrieve that one as well.
Fixed the link ( :
I love empanadas.
This ones looks delicious .
Olga
Thanks Olga – Hope you enjoy!
Hi Tina! I was so looking forward to making these but the recipe ingredients amounts are not available when I “JUMP TO RECIPE.”
Sorry Tina! I just found the recipes under “printable recipe,” and looking forward to making them! Thank you
Enjoy!
Hi, thank you for posting this. For some reason, I can’t see the recipe even when I click “Print Recipe”. I’d like to try them before making them for Thanksgiving :). Thank you!
Hi Stella – Let me get that fixed! May take me a day or two – I’ll comment back when it’s fixed.
Hi Stella – I created separate pages for all 4 of the Empanada recipes. You will see links on the original post. Let me know if you have any questions!
This is a great idea for a party! I love empanadas and would love to try this recipe!
This is a great idea for a party! I love empanadas and would love to try this recipe!
Enjoy!
This sounds like an amazing event, with so many delicious options to choose from! I can’t wait to try out these empanadas and see which filling and sauce combination is my favorite!