Flour Empanadas
When I was a kid the only empanadas that were sold on the streets or at restaurants were the “church style empanadas”, meaning the normal ones made with hominy corn or precooked cornmeal and filled with either beef or chicken, that’s it. Years later, when I visited Colombia I saw a huge number of restaurants specialized in all kinds of empanadas, including the ones made with flour and filled with all kinds of ingredients like ham and cheese, mushrooms, pepperoni, pork belly, you name it.
After posting two Colombian style empanadas on the blog, which are the beef empanadas and the ones filled with chicken, many people asked me to make flour empanadas or empanadas that could be baked in the oven. Since then, I have really wanted to share a flour empanadas recipe but had not been able due to lack of time, until now.
The recipe is mainly on how to make the dough since you can fill them with any ingredient that you want. Today, I’ll be filling them with ham and cheese but you can also use the filling I used for the other two empanada recipes.
¡Buen provecho!
Flour Empanadas
Ingredients
- 2¼ cup 315 g all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 stick (113 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes)
- 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
- 1/3 cup 80 ml cold water or more, if needed
- Ham slices (Any type and any amount you want)
- Shredded cheese (Any type and any amount you want)
- Chicken filling
- Beef filling
- Water
- 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix the flour with the salt. Then add the butter and crumble it with your hands or a fork. This process can also be done in the food processor. Now, add the egg and water and knead the dough until firm but don’t overwork it so your empanadas don’t come out too hard. Add more water if you see that the dough is too dry. Knead dough for a few minutes, form into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Pre-heat oven at 400ºF (204ºC).
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a rolling pin until it’s really thin. Cut out the dough into medium sized circles (approx. 4-5 inches or 10-13 cm) with a large cookie cutter or a bowl. Fill the empanadas with the filling of your choice, cheese, ham and cheese, chicken or beef, moisten the edges of the dough with a little bit of water, fold it over in half and seal the edges with your fingers. Now, twist the edge by folding over one of the corners with your thumb and pinching it. This will form a new pointed edge, fold this new edge over with your thumb and pinch it again. Do this until you reach the other corner of the empanada.
- Brush the empanadas with the beaten egg and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. You can also fry them at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 6-7 minutes or until golden brown.
Bring extra waters if you ever notice that a dough is definitely very dry up. Rub dough for a couple of a matter of minutes, sort to a tennis ball, hold by using vinyl hold plus refrigerate for a half hour to at least one an hour.
hola Diana Buenas tardes Mi nombre es Jonathan vivo en Filipinas también soy Colombiano. Primero que todo quería felicitarla por tan excelente blog y recetas, buscando y buscando llegue aquí :), Diana me gustaría saber como puedo contactarla ya que quiero hacer empanadas para negocio pero tengo un problema aquí en Filipinas no se consigue el Corn flour, lo único que he podido conseguir es all purpose four pero no se si con esta me sea fácil o me sirva para hacer la masa de empanadas y como hacerla, ya que serian fritas. Quedo atento a su gentil respuesta para saber como puedo contactarleMuchas graciasMi correo es [email protected]
Hola Jonathan, si quieres hacer las empanadas típicas colombianas necesitas la harina de maíz pre-cocida, que es la que se usa para hacer arepas. También puedes hacer la masa desde cero remojando, cocinando y moliendo maíz trillado o peto y en el blog también tengo la receta. Para hacer las empanadas de harina de trigo solo necesitas el "all purpose flour", que es la misma harina de trigo, que también lleva por nombre harina para todo uso. Aquí te dejo el enlace de cómo hacer la masa con maíz trillado: https://sweetysalado.com/2014/05/masa-para-hacer-arepas.html
Hola Diana me encantan tus recetas por que son fáciles y salen excelente, yo viví en España y hacia los pandebono y buñuelos colmaiz y con queso semicurado de Garcia vaquero y me quedaban bien resultado, gracias por tus resetas un fuerte abrazo
Can these be made in advance and put in fridge until you’re ready to bake?
You can make them ahead of time, just make sure you cover them well or they will get really dry.
buenos dias, quisiera saber si se pueden congelar , gracias, obviamente antes de hornear, gracias
Hola Pilar, nunca lo he hecho, pero sí he visto que lo hacen. Puedes tratar envolviéndolas con plástico de cocina y luego en una bolsa resellable para que el aire no las seque. Ya luego hornéalas (aunque quedan mejor si las fríes en aceite) por más tiempo o hasta que doren.
I made these with beef filling and chicken filling and they were delicious! A huge hit with the whole family.