Eaton inspired Empanadas

So, we just recently had a house guest this past weekend, and by house guest, I mean in our two family house and by we, I mean really - the Eatons.  Our amazing hosts upstairs had one of our most loved mutual friends in town, and boy do they do it right!  Since we have the wee one and our place is needless to say - kept for baby, they asked if it was alright if they cooked, but we ate down in our apartment.  I was like 'really, seriously - you expect me to say NO?!  Absolutely!!!'  Now, mind you, our culinary expert, C. Eaton has quite the reputation for delicious food, and if one could live beyond that expectation - she does. So of course, I was MORE than delighted to eat some delicious food with fantastic company.

One of those dishes - roasted vegetable empanadas.  In case you, like me at the time, furrowed your brow and asked what on earth is an empanada.  I will explain it simply - a spanish hot pocket.  Much better than a hot pocket, but that gives you the general idea.  There were a many other fantastic dishes that accompanied the empanada and an even more delicious breakfast the next morning.  But I will save that for another post (like J. Eaton's lentil soup!  If you know me, you KNOW how much I LOVE lentil soup!)

Inspired by my neighborly culinary genius, I made some empanadas of my own - Broccoli Cheddar Empanadas. great for freezing for future meals!

Soren Approved!

Broccoli-Cheddar Empanadas

Empanada Dough 

from epicurious

Ingredients:

makes about 12 

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole-wheat and 1 1/4 cups unbleached, if this is the case you will need extra cold water - add a tablespoon at at time)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 large egg

1/3 cup ice water

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar (I only had white wine vinegar and that worked fine...)

Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blend in butter with fingertips or pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal (roughly pea-size butter lumps)

Beat together egg, water and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork.  Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated (mixture will look shaggy)

Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of hand once or twice, just enough to bring dough together.  Form dough into two flat rectangles and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour.

Filling:

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced carrot

2 cups cut Broccoli, about one head (I used a bunch of Broccolette with most of the stems - turned out really nice!)

1 small yellow onion

2 cloves garlic diced

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

@ 1/2 cup mild cheddar cheese (depends on how cheesy you like your empanada)

Preheat the oven for 400 degrees fahrenheit

Heat olive oil in pan over moderate heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook for about 6-8 minutes, just before onion becomes translucent.  Add celery, carrot and broccoli and cook until just about tender.  Try not to over cook since the filling will also cook in the oven inside the dough.  

Roll out the rectangles (one at a time, unless you have a ridiculous amount of counter space) to 1/8" thickness.  Cut dough into 5" circles (I found a glass storage container that was EXACTLY 5" and cut around that).  Hold dough circle in palm of hand and add 2 tablespoons filling and a sprinkle of mild cheddar cheese in the middle.  Fold the sides together and close the edges in a half moon shape (like a taco) by gently pulling the dough together and out.  Now you can complete your edge with fork marks, or, in my case I ripple mine by folding in overlapping triangles - almost pie like.  Either way - just be sure it is sealed.  It may not seam like a lot of filling in each, but you also don't want to overfill them.  You will most likely end up with extra filling - more reason to make more dough.

Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  Egg wash (yolk and water) the top sides facing the heat - BE SURE TO DO THIS STEP!  And place in the oven for 20-25 minutes (I placed them in thirds and swapped them halfway through).

Enjoy!  I know Soren and I did!  We will be doing these again soon - maybe with a different filling.

Pin It