Empanadas Chilenas

When I start a cooking adventure, I never know what to expect. Sometimes the road is straight and smooth. Other times, there are bumps, twists, turns, and forks in the road, so that I don't know which path to take.

I had that type of experience when I decided to make the dessert empanadas that I saw on Cooking Diva. The recipes involved empanadas with choice fillings of either guava or pineapple. I'd never tasted that before. I love guava and was anxious to make them for the holiday season.

I bought the ingredients and followed the instructions. I made the dough and refrigerated it. When I pulled the dough from the fridge, it became soft again. So soft that I couldn't roll it, couldn't do anything. The dough became stickier and sticker, clinging to my hands and fingers and the rolling pin. I put a little more flour on it and the board, hoping that would solve the problem. It didn't help.

After contacting Melissa Cooking Diva about my problem, she told me that this particular dough is delicate and some of her students can't work it out because their body temperature is too high, causing them to have hot hands. Perhaps that could have been my problem, too. I'd never heard of that before and found it very interesting. Funny in my case, because usually when people shake my hands, especially in the winter time, I'm told that I have cold hands (to which I reply cold hands, warm heart).

I put the dough back in the fridge (I didn't want to throw it away) and Melissa sent me another recipe -- one for traditional empanada dough. It could be used for both dessert and meat empanadas.

At this point, I'd reached the fork in the road and had to decide which road to take, the left or the right -- the meat or the dessert empanada? I decided to make the meat. This time, with the second recipe, I didn't have a problem with the dough. I made the shell and put the meat filling inside.

The meat filling was easy to make and involved potatoes, tomatoes, raisins, green olives, dried oregano, salt, ground black pepperand dried thyme. I didn't have any raisins or green olives. So, I left them out.

My empanadas didn't taste bad at all except that they came out kind of thick. Next time I'll make sure to roll the dough even thinner. I plan on perfecting my empanada-making skills.
By the way, part of the ingredients for the dough called for vegetable shortening in addition to butter. I omitted the vegetable shortening. I'm not sure what difference it made. Perhaps if you read this, Melissa or anyone else who knows can tell me. Here's the recipe for Empanadas Chilenas.

What happened to the guava empanadas, pineapple mini pies, and the delicate dough that I put back into the fridge? I plan on making them and using the dough very soon. Wish me luck!

Paz

The chilled dough



Preparing the dough



Preparing the beef filling



Going into the oven

Ed. Note: The initial recipe calls for using whole wheat flour in addtion to all purpose flour. Melissa CookingDiva says: "You can try to make the dough just using all purpose flour. It is not common to find empanadas made with whole wheat flour, and the flavor changes completetly." Thanks for all your help, Melissa!