Baked Empanadas Recipe

 I love simple, hand-held meals like pasties and taquitos, so it made sense for me to come up with an empanada recipe for my family. The ground beef seasoned with my taco seasoning (linked below) is the perfect empanada filling, along with hard-boiled egg and black olives.  Also, these empanadas are baked, not fried. When baked, the dough is chewy and crispy, so it is almost as if they are fried. They go great with guacamole, or sour cream if you eat dairy.

Baked Empanadas Recipe

For the empanada dough:

1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp water
Olive oil to brush over tops of empanadas before baking

Mix together dry ingredients with a fork. Add the oil and cut it in with the fork until the mixture resembles course meal. Add the water and mix thoroughly, just until the dough forms a ball. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and cover with plastic wrap until ready to make empanadas.

For the empanada filling:

1 lb extra lean ground beef
Taco Seasoning Recipe
3 hard-boiled eggs
12 medium black olives (whole)

Cook the ground beef per the instructions in the Taco Seasoning Recipe.  While you are browning the ground beef, hard boil 3 eggs in a small pot, and when they are done, peel  them and cut them each in half.

To make the empanadas:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Lightly dust your working surface with flour. Take a piece of the dough, roll it into a ball in your hand, lightly dust it with flour, and use a rolling pin to roll it to a thin 6 inch circle. Put 1/3 cup of meat filling, a hard-boiled egg half, and two whole black olives (arranged how you want them) onto one end of the circle, not too close to the edge.  Fold the dough over, press the two edges together to close the empanada, and fold the edge up and over and press again to make a lip. Press a fork along the lip edge to secure the seal. Put the empanada on the cookie sheet and use a knife to cut a few slits in the top of it. When all of the empanadas are on the cookie sheet, brush them lightly with olive oil before putting them in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Makes 6 empanadas.