Chilean-style Empanadas

Ingredients:

  • Pino Filling: 1 kg onions, 1 kg veal (lean), 2 tbsp neutral oil or pork fat, 1 tbsp ground cumin, 2 tbsp oregano, 2 tbsp ají de color (use paprika if not available), 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp merken (optional), 1/4 boiled egg per empanada (I usually boil 6 total for good measure), 1 tbsp flour and a dash of water (optional for making filling thicker), raisins, good quality black olives.

  • Dough: 1 kg flour, 375 cc hot water, 100 cc white whine, 1 whole egg, 20 g salt, 130 g butter.

Instruction for filling:

  1. Dice the onion into small pieces and dice the veal (or can use lean ground beef too or mixture of both).

  2. Place the onion, cumin, oregano, ají de color, and salt in a pot and mix occasionally for 30 minutes in low heat, add merken at half way point if you wish. If it starts to stick, add water and reduce heat and continue to mix.

  3. After 30 minutes pass, add veal and incorporate well for 5 minutes. Then keep stirring the pot occasionally until meat is browned for 30 additional minutes, yes it takes a full hour and there are no shortcuts here.

  4. Once the hour passes, you can add the flour and water if you wish to make the filling thicker and mix well. Let the filling cool and place it in the fridge.

  5. Boil the eggs for 9 minutes.

Instructions for dough:

  1. For this dough, the water must be boiling. Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the egg, wine, salt, and mix with a spoon well. Then add the butter (melted and hot), and keep mixing. Add some of the water (boiling) and keep mixing. Then mix until it is all well incorporated, adding water as necessary to help with the consistency, make sure to keep some of the water available off to the side.

  2. Once the dough is well incorporated, start mixing with your hand and knead the dough until uniform. Once the dough is uniform, take it out of the bowl and keep kneading until no longer sticky and smooth (should take approximately 5 minutes).

  3. Divide the dough equally into 100 gram chunks (approximately 15 portions should be the yield here), making the 100 gram chunks into small uniform balls.

  4. Take each 100 gram ball and pat it flat with your hand until a disk. Then use a roller until obtaining a 2 milimeters thin, 20 centimeters diameter circle, you can use a plate as a rough reference for the diameter. Layer each disk on each other using flour. Leave in the fridge over night once done

Assembly:

  1. The most fun part! Upon leaving all the ingredients in the fridge overnight. Cover a baking tray with oil and a thin spread of flour (or use parchment paper).

  2. Make eggwash mixing 1 whole egg with half a cup of milk well.

  3. Take each disk and place approximately 2 tablespoons of filling, 1/4 of boiled egg, 1 good quality olive, and add 2 raisins.

  4. Cover corners of dough with egg wash and fold the empanada. Then press down to seal it with the sides of your hands. Fold the right and left sides and then the center and press down to seal well. Do this for all the disks.

  5. Place all the empanadas on the baking tray and brush all of them with eggwash, pinch a hole at the center of the empanada with a toothpick. Take to an oven, preheated to 250 degrees Celsius, and each batch will spend 12 minutes in the oven, they will get done quick because the dough is thin.

  6. Enjoy!

Empanadas