Empanadas

Remember back here I made these things I called pulled pork and black bean goodness. My friend Jamie reminded me that they're empanadas. She also gave me a couple other dough recipes to try out. The first one was a LOT easier to work with than swiebach dough and kind of acted more like a tortilla when being baked. (I'm opting for the lower cal baking route.) I'm able to roll the dough very thin and they're very crisp when done. One drawback when using them as freezer lunches is that they do produce more crumbs. (Said the messy eater.)


Here is that dough recipe:

2 cups flour, 1/3 cup
shortening or butter, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2-2/3 cup water (just enough for the
dough to come together and be soft and pliable). Wrap the dough in plastic wrap
and refrigerate an hour or two before using. You could also freeze the dough.
Should make 10 2-inch circles, or 5 bigger ones!

Then, yesterday I tried a different recipe to see if I could get the same pliability but maybe a little softer. The recipe can be found here. The ingredients are 

• 3 cups flour (plus a little more for kneading)


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup cold water


• 1 egg


• 1 egg white


• 1 teaspoon vinegar


• 3 tablespoons shortening

This recipe was a bit softer when baked, but didn't look as nice or roll out as easily. 

All of the picture credits go to Luke in this post. He took all the process pictures over my shoulder and it went so much more quickly than if I had taken them all myself. With the photos I even got a bit of commentary on how my dough isn't very round when I roll it out. He says it's because I don't have enough of the culture. Punk.