Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!
So I decided to take all those mountain fresh apples that the hubster and I picked a few weeks ago, add a little sugar and cinnamon, and make a mountain apple empanada!
I started my empanada dough first, by following this recipe from Asi Son Los Cosas. It is almost fool proof and took me no time at all getting the dough prepared. Once in a lightly oiled bowl, I left the dough alone to rise for about 40-50 minutes and began work on my apple filling.
I cored and peeled 6-8 apples with my handy dandy apple peeler. It is one of those hand crank, older-than-dirt peelers attached to a wooden board, but it just so happens to be one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. I think it’s because it makes me feel like I am in an old world time period, let’s say circa 1930′s, wearing a white, frilly apron with heels and listening to some big band orchestra in the background while baking Mama’s homemade apple pies.
Once my apples were sliced and diced, I added a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon. I let them simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes until the apples began to soften. I then removed my apple mixture from the stove and let it cool while I rolled out my empanada.
On a lightly floured surface, I cut my dough in half and rolled out one half in a long rectangle. I then added my cooled apple mixture. After taking a closer look at this photo, I noticed my apple slices are a few different size. Part of that is because of the breakdown of the apples due to the heat from the stove, but I would recommend you try and keep your slices the same size to ensure that they cook at the same rate.
The apple empanada is very similar to making an apple pie only your using empanada dough instead of a pie crust. So to top your empanada, take your other half of dough and roll that out in a long rectangle. You will have to make sure it is a bit smaller than your bottom rectangle because it only has to cover the filling. I chose to seal the bottom rectangle to the top with fork marks, so that looked like an apple pie. You also have to make a 1 1/2 -2 in. hole in the middle to allow hot air to escape.
I also used my extra dough to make little leaves to border my forked crust.
After a quick egg wash, I baked my empanada for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Final note: This post makes me think of my Mom, who is on a 31 day Mediterranean cruise with her friends and is currently in Barcelona, Spain. I hope that while you are in Spain you have a true empanada for me, Mom. xoxo
I wish I had made an apple empanada as well, it looks so delicious!
Great job on the challenge, looks delicious!
I love your apple pealing gadget, it’s so cute!! Your empanada looked lovely, and the filling is just awesome. Thanks for taking your time to make the recipe and congratulations!
Looks really delicious! My Mum has one of those apple peelers too and they are the most amazing mechanical gadgets! They do a pretty good job on potatoes too (provided you don’t mind them being ‘cored’ in the process!)
Thanks for the comment! Let your Mum know that if you use the included wrench, you can unscrew the front bolt and swing down the corer, so that it will peel, but not core!