Sole’s Ground Beef Empanadas
Inspired by Soledad Lozano’s recipe she made for the Lanspa family when they visited Navarro, Argentina in 2012 for Michelle and Luis’s wedding.
Makes about 25 empanadas.
Ingredients
Filling:
½ red bell pepper
1 pound ground beef, not too fatty and not too lean
Salt and pepper
Cumin
1 cup beef or chicken broth
4 hard-boiled eggs
½ - 1 cup green Spanish olives
¼ - ½ cup raisins, preferably golden
1-2 eggs for pre-bake egg-wash
Dough:
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Dough:
*** You can make the dough from scratch, or…. You can sometimes find the “tapitas” (little lids) in a Latin supermarket (Goya and La Salteña are the most common brands). You can also buy sugar-free, pre-made piecrust and cut out circles to save time.***
Pour the flour onto a clean surface and shape into a shallow volcano.
Work the butter into the flour first with your fingers.
In a large glass or bowl, mix together the water, milk, and salt. Slowly add to the middle of the flour ring until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers.
Sprinkle flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. The dough should be fairly thin, about 1/8-inch.
Cut out empanada circles with a 3-4inch circular cookie cutter until dough is finished. It helps to put wax paper between each circle so they don’t stick together, especially if you are going to store them for later use.
Filling:
Hard boil 4 eggs: Place your eggs in a pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cover, remove from the heat and set aside 8 to 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water and set aside.
Finely chop the red pepper and set aside. Roughly chop up the olives and raisins and set aside separately (if you are cooking for picky eaters, you can chop these up very finely so that the taste is still there but you can’t see them!).
Cook the ground beef and red pepper in the large pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Once meat is cooked, add in the broth and cook until the meat mixture is juicy but not watery (about 5 minutes). In the meantime, peel and chop up the hard-boiled eggs.
Remove the beef from the heat and add in the chopped up eggs, olives, and raisins.
Cool to room temperature, and then in the refrigerator at least an hour before assembling the empanadas (other wise the warm filling will melt through the dough and make it impossible to work with). The filling can be made up to 24 hours ahead of time, and it can also be frozen for future use.
Assembly:
Preheat oven to 400º F. Grease baking sheets with olive oil or butter.
Place about 1 tablespoon of meat filling in the middle of an empanada wrapper. Place tepid water in a small bowl and with one finger wet the outer edge of one half of the dough circle. Fold the wrapper and press the wetted side to the drier side, careful not to let the filling fall out. Starting at one edge of the half circle, fold a pinch of dough over the seam to close the empanada and place on the baking sheet.
Before cooking, beat 1-2 eggs in a small bowl and brush onto each empanada. Lightly sprinkle empanadas with salt and bake in the oven for around 25 minutes, until golden brown, checking half way through.