As I mentioned in my last post, Marthe chose empanadas for this week's Bake! Twitterbake.
We opted to try the chicken variation. The filling (picadillo) was made from potatoes, onion, red pepper, garlic, chicken thighs, cumin, tomato puree, salt, water, white vinegar, green olives, and chipotle chili powder. (I skipped the capers.) It was time consuming, but not difficult to make.
The puff pastry was easy to use. I rolled it out, chilled it, and cut it into eight circles. Dropped the filling in the center (I used about a 1/4 cup), crimped it together, and baked them for about 30 minutes.
My hubby loved them and the baby girl ate all the filling. I thought they were pretty good, although I think I prefer our normal pasty recipe (from Cook's Country, made with leftover pot roast). Mostly, I was just impressed by how perfectly flaky, layered, and buttery my puff pastry was! I think I'll use it to make pasties next time.
Oh, and with the leftover scraps, I rolled them out in sugar and then tried the corkscrew shaping method that Nick Malgieri demonstrated on Martha Stewart. We liked them as much (more?) than the elephant ears yesterday, and I'm a little worried...they are so delicious and so quick to make, I'm afraid they might appear here frequently!
Looks great! And it sounds like they were hit, and with the basic recipe, you could change the filling up to suit your mood.
ReplyDeleteI doubt if I'll get around to making these until after tax season is over, but I will definitely make them.
I'd like that kind of pastry on chicken pot pie. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteWill have to try the sugar corkscrew version - my daughter asked if I could make some plain puff pastry because she loves it so much. The corkscrews are almost plain ;o). Not much work involved. Good job on the empanadas. We gobbled up the leftover filling (could have filled 4 more empanadas) - it was sooo yummy!
ReplyDeleteAbby, you're so clever to make your own puff pastry! Thank you for the inspiration, I've never tried it, but I might now.. :)
ReplyDeleteLook great to me...hoping to get to these soon, am waiting for Matt to get back home as I know he would love these...just his kind of thing. Can't decide chicken or beef...yours look wonderful. Think I will just make 12 of them with a full batch of the dough...they freeze, right? Not that I ever have any leftovers, but just in case!
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