This is a beautiful, easy to work with, slightly lean pastry for Empanadas. You can see how gorgeous and flaky this dough bakes up in the photos of my Chipotle Pulled Pork Empanadas. Note, too, it has the classic “giraffe-like” pattern that I was told is one of the hallmarks of a great empanada dough.
Chipotle Pulled Pork Empanadas made from leftover pulled pork
That’s something you don’t see that often anymore since so many empanadas these days are made all or partly by machine or with store-bought wrappers. Sometimes I wish I could buy store-bought wrappers (I’d be eating Empanadas all the time) but I’ve never seen them for sale near me. This pastry is so easy, though, it can be knocked out in just about no time.
About Empanada Dough:
First of all, this Empanada this dough makes 12 five-inch rounds of dough (you’ll need to use the scraps) each about 1/8th of an inch in thickness. That’s the perfect amount of dough to use for a filling of about four cups, 1/3 of a cup of filling in each empanada.
It’s a “just right” size for plating, or even better, eating out of hand. (And by the way, it’s the perfect amount of Empanada wrappers if you want to make my Chipotle Pulled Pork Empanadas as your filling. They are traditional dough – non traditional filling & they’re insanely good!)
Knowing those details is nice so you don’t end up with leftover empanada wrappers or leftover filling. It’s also nice because one of the standard-size scoops is 1/3 of a cup. Gotta love anything that makes making a heritage recipe like this a bit easier! Grandma may have knocked these out all the time, but most of us can likely use any bit of help we can get!
Here are the steps to prepare this dough in photos:
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- When dough is turned out it will look like a mess
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- I sifted out butter so you could see what it should look like. but don’t do that – it was only for demonstration purposes.
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- First smoosh
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- 2nd smoosh
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- Third Smoosh
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- After third smoosh I pinch it together. This needs a few drops of water
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- Wrap and refrigerate for an hour
Making Empanada Dough:
This is an all-butter dough, which is tasty; if you’d like, you can use lard instead, just sub in the same amount; lard can give you a little better texture. If you can use 1/2 lard and 1/2 butter, that will give you both taste & a great texture. Just sub in the same amount.
The really important thing about this Empanada dough is to not overwork it. Seriously, follow the steps above in the photos no matter how tempted you are to take things further and totally mix things up when making the empanada dough.
- Add the cold butter in pieces to the flour.
- Pinch it and work it with your fingertips so the flour pieces are pretty flat and about the size of a nickle and there are smaller bits, too.
- Dump everything out of the bowl onto the counter and scrape the bowl with a spatula if needed. The dough might seem wet and that’s ok.
- Using the bottom of the palm of your hand, “smoosh” the dough by pushing the dough nearest to you with the heel of your hand and going all the way across the dough to the other side. Gather the dough pieces left behind and smoosh again. Repeat. And Stop. Do not do any more even if you think you need to.
- Gently incorporate any dry areas of flour that are in pieces by pinching them pushing them into the dough. Use just a few more sprinkles of water if needed. Sprinkles are putting your fingertips into the water and flicking a few drops onto a dry area. Do this very little. The dough might seem a little too dry and a little crumbly but that’s OK.
- Wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. That’s going to let the moisture even out inside the dough. Let it sit for a few minutes at room temperature if needed before rolling it out.
- If you refrigerate for more than an hour you’ll probably need to let it sit out at room temperature for anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to let it soften enough to roll.
When rolling, flour the surface of your counter or board and flour your rolling pin. Be gentle as you roll. Don’t press with a lot of weight.
- As you roll it, if any of the chunks of butter stick to the rolling pin, scrape them off, and attach them back to the pastry, and put just a tiny amount of flour over them before your next roll.
- If the dough sticks to the counter (it might be too warm if it continues to stick) scrape up from the bottom with a pastry scraper or thin metal spatula.
What you are looking for is a pliable dough where the butter is all flattened out. This will form “sheaves” inside the dough, and that will give you flaky layers.
This is the same idea as puff pastry only on a much smaller scale because you’ll have layer after layer of butter. The butter will be clearly visible in the dough.
Saving Money on Empanada Dough:
Shop carefully for your baked goods, especially your butter which dollar for dollar, is really the priciest baked good.
- If you have an Aldi or Lidl near you, it’s a great place to pick up butter; better even than your buyer’s club and their everyday prices usually beat even the best grocery store sales prices. You can watch for sales, too.
- Butter is often at a great price at your buyer’s club. Generally, the pricing isn’t as good as Aldi or Lidl but you’ll need to check if you want the best price.
- If you don’t have either option, stock up on your butter at the grocery store during holiday sales when it is often half-price. Stock up and freeze it until needed and buy enough to last to the next great sale. Hint, butter is usually on sale before every big holiday. See my post on Win at the Grocer. It will have links for every big “food” holiday. You will likely find the best prices on butter before the big baking holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
You can pretty much use the same strategy for flour and sugar. Freeze flour or any items containing flour for three days as soon as you bring them into the house. That will help you avoid any “peskies” that might be lurking.
If you are using lard, you may never see it on sale.
- Look for lard in the baking aisle of your grocery; it’s often near the bottom shelf and will come in a package just like butter does or in a plastic tub.
- The other option, and probably the best for taste, is to find a butcher or a store with a butcher counter (a Latin American market is probably your best bet) where they prepare their own lard. You may need to ask.
- Note that some butchers don’t prepare their lard and just sell the same options that are at the grocery store.
Chipotle Pulled Pork Empanadas
Empanada Dough
- Total Time: 25 minutes + chill
- Yield: 12 empanada wrappers 1x
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup very cold butter, cut into small chunks; try for 1/2 tablespoons or so
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (or Vodka)
- A glass of ice water; you’ll use a third of a cup, perhaps more
Instructions
Add flour and salt to a bowl, whisk together. Add the butter, tossing to separate the pieces and coat them with flour. Working by hand, pinch the pieces of butter into the flour, forming a good amount of larger flat pieces the size of a nickel or so as well as smaller bits.
Mix egg and milk together. Measure 1/3 a cup of the ice water and a tablespoon of vinegar and add to egg mixture. Very quickly (you don’t want to coddle the milk with the vinegar) drizzle the egg/milk/vinegar/water mixture over the flour while tossing with a fork until mostly incorporated.
Turn out on a counter and rub across the mixture three times with the heel of your hand, smooshing it as you go. By now, the pastry should be mostly coming together with a few dry areas. Work on those areas by pinching and pushing them into the dough. If necessary add a few sprinkles of water to moisten. The dough should “feel” fairly dry and there may be a few bits that aren’t well incorporated. You should see chunks of butter, throughout.
Gather the dough together into a pile, gently flatten it into a squarish shape, wrap it in parchment paper or plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Overnight is fine, too, and wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for a day or two or frozen for 1 month. If refrigerated more than an hour, leave the dough at room temperature for 5 to 20 minutes before rolling out.
On a floured work surface, roll out the dough, from the center to edges, 1/8″ thick. Cut into five-inch rounds. You’ll need to reroll the scraps, but to keep them tender, layer them on top of one another, cover with a clean damp cloth and let the rest a few minutes. You can fill the others as you wait. Then just roll the scraps out; the dough should stick together just fine.
Cover the rolled out rounds with a damp cloth as you fill the Empanadas.
For filling and baking, please see my Chipotle Pulled Pork Empanada post.
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