Daring Bakers Challenge – September: Empanada Gallega

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favourite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill out Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

I decided to normal Empanada dough, but since there’s only 2 of us in my house I halved the recipe so it woule serve 3. I chose to fill my Empanada with chicken, chorizo, onion and peppers. Since it was going inside an Empanada it was imperative that the filling wasn’t too wet, hence why I didn’t add any sauce.

You really don’t notice the fact there is no sauce. I was really impressed with how mine turned out. It made such a lovely change to have a dough crust rather than a pastry crust. I will definitely be making this again! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 🙂

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You will need:

> 25 x 18cm (ish) pie dish.

Ingredients for the Empanada Dough:

> 250g bread flour
> 200ml warm water
> 50ml oil + extra to grease bowl
> 1 7g sachet of yeast
> 1/2tsp salt
> 1/2tsp paprika
> 1 beaten egg to glaze

Ingredients for the filling:

> 1 chicken breast
> 120g chorizo
> 1 onion
> 1 red pepper

Method:

> No need to preheat the oven yet, the dough needs to rise and the filling needs to cool.
> Chop your chorizo into small pieces.
> Slice your onion thinly.
> Chop up your pepper.
> Chop your chicken into 1″ pieces.
> Place a large saucepan or wok over a medium heat.
> Place the onions, peppers and chorizo into your hot saucepan.
> Cook the vegetables and chorizo for a few minutes until the onions have softened. You won’t need any oil to cook with as the chorizo has its own.

> Add in the chicken.
> Brown the chicken and cook for a few more minutes until tender.
> Place the filling in a heatproof bowl and leave to cool completely.
> Heat the oven to 50-100 degrees C. Once it has reached this temperature, turn it off. This will be where you put your dough to rise.
> Place the flour, yeast, salt and paprika in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
> Give it a quick mix and then add in the water and oil.
> Mix until a dough forms. If doing by hand, flour the work surface and then knead for 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. If doing in the stand mixer, reduce kneading time to 5 minutes, you may need a couple of extra tbsp of flour as the dough is kneaded.
> Once you’ve finished kneading, lightly oil a medium size bowl and place the dough inside.

> Cover with cling film and place in the warm oven for 40 minutes to rise. After 40 minutes your dough should have doubled in size.

> Flour your work surface lightly and turn the dough out onto it. Knock the air out of the dough. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
> Split the dough in half.
> Place one half of the dough to the side. Roll half of the dough out thin enough to cover the base of the dish with overlap over the edges (this is so you can pinch the edges shut).
> Lay the dough over your dish and press lightly into the corners. Don’t worry too much as the filling will weigh it down.

> Making sure the filling is completely cool, place it on top of the crust. If it hasn’t cooled completely, you’ll have to wait a bit longer until it has otherwise you will end up with a soggy bottom.

> Roll out the over half of the dough, it doesn’t need to be as big as the base, only big enough to cover the filling.
> Place the dough on top of the filling. Trim off any excess edges, but leave enough to pinch the top.
> Using your thumb and forefinger, go around the dish pinching and crimping the edge of your Empanada. Use the leftover dough to decorate your Empanada. I cut out the first letters of mine and my boyfriends names and a heart 🙂
> Make a small hole in the middle of the pie so that steam can escape.
> Glaze the top of the Empanada with the beaten egg.

> Place in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and hollow if you tap it. Make sure the filling is piping hot, it’s already cooked so as long as it is hot, it’s ready.
> Serve immediately with salad, wedges or mash like us 🙂