Handmade Christmas Thursdays!--Week 2

Today I am sharing another recipe from our family's Christmas feast--empanadas, small, meat-filled pastries from Peru.

The combination of ingreedients in empanadas may sound a bit strange to our American pallete, but I assure you, these are delicious! I think I ate about one dozen of them myself last year at Christmas. To my defense, I was nine months pregnant with Henry!

Peruvian Christmas Empanadas

Dough:

5-6 c. flour (white works best--I tried with whole-wheat--BAD!)

2 sticks of butter, softened

About 1 1/2 c. hot water, enough to make a firm, pie-crust-like dough

1 tsp.salt

Pour flour onto a clean, dry working surface--I always use my table. Make a well in center of flour pile; add butter and one half of water into the well. Add salt, and began to hand-knead the dough, slowly incorporating in more water until the dough has the consistency of pie crust. Cover dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour. Roll dough to about 1/4 in. thickness; use a drinking glass or a small biscuit cutter to cut out round discs of dough.

Filling:

1 lb. ground meat of your choice--we like beef, but have used chicken as well

1 anaheim chilli pepper, chopped

1 1/2 c. thinly-sliced green onion

pinch of cumin

1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper

3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

1/2 c. raisins

Brown the ground meat in a large frying pan; add chilli and cumin, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and add onion, egg and raisins.

Assemble:

Place about 1 tsp. filling in each dough disc; fold in half, turnover style, and seal edges with the tines of a fork. Place empanadas on a greased baking sheet; brush with beaten egg yolk. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, or until well-browned.

This post is part of "Having A Handmade Christmas" at Proverbs 31 Living, http://www.proverbs31living.blogspot.com/