Dough for Empanadas

Different ways to crimp empanada pastry.
See below to see how to make the braided effect.

A truly great empanada is all about the crust. The dough for the traditional Argentine empanada, which can be baked or fried, is usually made with wheat flour and lard, resulting in a crispy, light and flaky texture. Empanadas, pastries stuffed with filling that range from meat or ham and cheese to spinach or tuna, are a staple for Argentines, as a heavy snack or light meal.

I've seen a lot of recipes for empanada dough. Some are fairly basic consisting of flour, salt, shortening or butter, and water, similar to a pie crust. Some recipes for empanadas have you use store bought pie crust, in fact, others call for puff pastry. From my research it appears that the most traditional doughs use lard and, perhaps, an egg, but I have also seen some that use masa harina, such as Emeril Lagasse's recipe below. These doughs do not seem to call for an egg. Several recipes have you use liquor, wine or beer in place of the water, probably to lighten the dough.

If you are making more than one filling, use different crimps for each filling so you can distinguish which are which once fried or baked.

Empanada Dough - made with wheat flour
Recipe courtesy Michelle Bernstein, foodnetwork.com

Brian and I used this dough recipe, substituting lard for the shortening, and it was very good - nice and flakey. We used beer for the liquid and did have to add more than 1/3 cup to bring the dough together. I did not use a food processor, chosing to make them as I would a regular pie crust. I also did not roll out the dough and cut circles out of it. I divided my dough into 12 by flattening the ball of dough a bit and cutting it into 12 wedges like a pizza. I then rolled each into a small ball and evened out their sizes. Each ball was rolled individually into circles.

Both those that we fried and those we baked had a nice texture, although the fried ones were just a little bit crisper, but not by much. Those that were fried were more evenly browned. I did not try America Test Kitchen's suggestion of brushing those baked in the oven with oil rather than an egg wash. This may have brought them closer to those that were fried. I did try the technique of brushing with oil before baking, and they did turn out more evenly brown. They did not have that gloss that an egg wash would have given them, though.

The measurements in parentheses will give 16 dough circles, enough for the *Sweet Corn & Bacon Empanadas filling recipe. These will be the smaller appetizer size. I used the measurements in parentheses and made 8 sandwich size emapanadas using the Empanadas Argentinas recipe (dough circles about 6 - 7" - I could have probably gotten 10 pieces out of it). There was enough meat mixture for 10 sandwich size emapandas. We'll use the leftover mixture for eggs or making quesadillas.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough (3 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
5 tablespoons vegetable shortening (7 Tbsp.)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup dry white wine (Alex Garcia uses beer) (1/2 cup)
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. water, if baking (for brushing top of pastries just before putting in oven)

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Cut in shortening, mixture should be sandy. Add the egg and wine, pulse until dough comes together in a ball. The dough should be pliable; if not add more wine.

Separate the dough into 3 balls. Roll the first ball out until it is 1/4 inch thick. With a 6-inch round cutter, cut circles out of all the dough. Remove the edges and save for the next roll. Fill each circle with about 2 1/2 tablespoons of desired filling in the center of the dough.

Dip a small brush in room temperature water, run the brush around the edge of the dough. Close 1 side to the other forming a half moon shape. Close the edges pressing lightly with the back of a fork or crimp as for pie crusts.

In a deep saute pan, heat 4 to 5 inches of canola oil on medium high heat to 360 degrees F. Add the empanadas turn over constantly until golden. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Makes 12 5-6" dough discs, would probably make 16 appetizer size discs or a little more

TO BAKE INSTEAD OF DEEP-FRY: Place baking sheets in oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. While baking sheets are preheating, assemble the empandas. Drizzle 2 tablespoons oil over surface of each hot baking sheet, then return to oven for 2 minutes. Carefully place 6 empanadas on each baking sheet and brush empanadas with oil. Cook until well browned and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking. Cool empanadas on wire rack 10 minutes and serve.

One way to crimp the edges of the empanada dough
disc to seal in the filling for baking or deep-frying

Completed crimp on an empanada