Chilean Empanada de pino
a flavorful meat filled hand pie
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 12 tablespoons vegetable shortening chilled
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 cup water
Beef filling
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 large onions diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon beef base or 1 cube beef bouillon
- ¼ cup hot water
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons flour
- ½ cup raisins chopped
- ½ cup black olives chopped
- 2-3 hardboiled eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
dough
- sift the flour into a large bowl, stir in the salt and sugar. Mix in the butter and shortening breaking up all the pieces. Use a pastry cutter or your hands until incorporated.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the water and stir half of it into the flour and then a little at a time until the dough starts to come together smoothly. Keep kneading the dough, adding more of the egg water mixture as needed. If you need more liquid a tablespoon of water at a time. The dough will become smooth, although somewhat wet, it will come together once it has been chilled.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. You can also make this up a day or two ahead of time. When ready to use, the dough should be soft and smooth. It is not an elastic dough.
beef filling
- heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the diced onions and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the ground beef, cumin, chili powder, paprika. If using a bouillon cube dissolve it in hot water, Add the salt and pepper to taste. Cook the beef, stirring and crumbling the meat with a spatula, until well browned. Add the flour and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the raisins, olives and eggs, Let the filling cool completely. The filling can also be stored for a day or two if you wanted to make these in stages.
assembly
- pre-heat the oven to 350°F and a baking sheet
- divide the dough into golf ball sized pieces and roll into smooth balls. Let them rest for 5 minutes
- roll each ball of dough on a floured surface into a 6-inch circle about ¼ inch thick. Add a tablespoon of the beef filling into the middle of the circle. Brush the edges with water and fold the pastry in half, over the filling to make a semi-circle. Seal the edges by pressing down with your fingers.
- brush the sealed edge lightly with water, then turn the edge toward the middle and press with your finger to seal.
- mix the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of milk and brush the empanadas with the mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- you can freeze them individually either before baking or after. Just place them on a sheet tray to freeze them and them place them in a freezer bag. Should be fine for about 3 months in the freezer. Let them thaw for about 30 minutes on the counter before re-heating or baking.