Recipe: Baked Empanadas

Baked Empanadas

FILLING:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground paprika
4 onions, finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground red new Mexican chile
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound ground beef
3 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
20 black olives, pitted
40 large raisins

CRUST:
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 egg, beaten well
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup shortening, melted

GLAZE:
1 egg, beaten with
2 tablespoons milk

Heat the oil with the paprika, add the onions and saut until soft.

Add the cumin, oregano, chile powder, salt, and ground beef. Cook until the meat is no longer pink, but don't let it get too brown. Refrigerate until the next day so that the juice sets

Preheat an oven to 400F.

To make the crust:
Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the liquid ingredients and beat to form a stiff dough. Divide the dough into 20 pieces and roll each into a thin circle.

Put a spoonful of the filling on half of the circle and divide the egg slices, the olives and raisins among the 20 Empanadas.

Fold over the dough, wet the edge with milk, fold over again to make a border If you like them shiny, paint with glaze before putting them in the oven. Place on a sheet pan.

Bake until brown. Serve with pebre sauce. Heat.

NOTES: In Chile, Empanadas are baked rather than fried, as they are in other Latin countries. To increase the heat add pebre sauce.

Servings: 20