Vegetable Empanadas — A Latin American Pastry

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Wrapping Dough

1. 1
   Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.

   Bowl
2. 2
   Add the cold butter in cubes and rub it in with your fingertips, until coarse crumbs form.

   💡The butter must stay cold: butter that melts in your hands gives a hard dough instead of a crumbly one. Work quickly, and if the dough warms up, put it back in the fridge.
3. 3
   Add the egg and cold water and quickly bring together with your hands, without kneading, just until the dough comes together.

   💡Knead as little as possible: long kneading develops gluten, and the dough comes out tough and shrinks in the oven.
4. 4
   Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes.

   ⚙ Wrapping and Chilling the DoughPlastic wrapRefrigerator

   💡Chilling firms the butter and relaxes the gluten: the dough rolls out easily, doesn't stick to the counter and doesn't shrink in the oven.

For the Pastry Filling

1. 5
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
2. 6
   Add the onion and carrot and fry 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 7
   Add the pepper and fry about 8 minutes, stirring, until it softens.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
4. 8
   Add the cumin and paprika and fry about half a minute, until fragrant.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
5. 9
   Add the potatoes, salt and black pepper and mix well.
6. 10
   Let cool before filling.

   💡Fill with cooled filling: hot filling softens the dough and steams it from inside, and the pastry opens while baking.

To assemble

1. 11
   Roll out the dough thin, to 3 mm, and cut into into rounds of about 12 cm.

   ⚙ Rolling Out DoughRolling pinKnife

   💡Roll from the center outward and give the dough a quarter turn between rolls: this keeps it even in thickness and stops it sticking to the counter. If it springs back, cover for 10–15 minutes and try again.
2. 12
   Place a spoonful of cooled filling in the center of each piece, fold into half-moons and seal the edges well with a fork.

   💡Seal well and press with a fork all along the edges, and don't overfill: a pastry that opens in the oven loses its filling, and in the fryer it fills with oil.
3. 13
   Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg.

   Baking panParchment paper

   💡Brush with an egg beaten with a teaspoon of water: the glaze turns shiny and golden.
4. 14
   Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C (390°F) 25 minutes, until the pastries are puffed and golden underneath too.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.