Dough Recipe for Empanadillas

Empanadillas (traditionally baked or fried turnovers that are made with pastry dough and stuffed with endless combinations of food) became popular throughout Spain during a comedy sketch by the duo “Martes y Trece” (Tuesday and Thirteen) when a listener called from Móstoles. The lady was frying some empanadillas during that time. It was New Year’s Eve of 1986! The recipe for empanadillas is very easy and looks great. You can make them fried if you follow the traditional recipe, or put them in the oven if you want to lower the caloric intake.  You decide on the filling: stuffed with tuna and tomato sauce, meat, eggs, or vegetables are all great options. You also have a variety of sweet options: they can be stuffed with walnuts, sweet potato, quinces… The best thing about empanadillas is that they are very easy to prepare and they are a perfect dish when you have guests over. Simple, economical and very good. Do you dare to try preparing the dough? Come on, grab your apron!

Ingredients for the Empanadillas Dough

  • Flour (300 grams)
  • Butter (25 grams)
  • Lard (25 grams)
  • Glass of water (1/2)
  • Glass of white wine (1/2)
  • Salt

How to Make It:

  1. Put the water, the wine, butter and lard in a saucepan. Put it on the heat, but remove it when you see that it has warmed up. Do not wait for it to boil.
  2. Mix the flour with the salt. Sift the flour and the salt and pour it in the saucepan.
  3. With a wooden spoon, quickly mix the ingredients.
  4. Put some flour on the dough and knead it with your hands. This way, you can shape the dough into a ball and leave it to sit for 2 hours.
  5. After this, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough until you create a thin sheet.
  6. It’s time to shape the empanadillas! With the edge of a glass, cut circles in the dough by pressing down. Try to make them as close as possible, so you can use all of the dough.
  7. Fill the middle of the circles with your desired fillings. Do not overfill or it will overflow when fried or baked.
  8. To close them, use the ends of a fork to join the edges by pressing down without breaking the dough. The result will be a crescent-shaped empanadilla.

Text: María Jesús Colombo

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