Week 14: Spinach and cheese empanadas

Didn't get the best pics this week, but these are quite yummy! A spinach and cheese mixture wrapped in pastry and baked until golden.

The recipe I used can be found here: http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/snacksstreetfood/r/spinachempanada.htm

I did make a couple of alterations - for the dough, instead of using all flour, I substituted in one cup of masa for one cup of the flour, just to add that bit of corn flavour. And for the filling, I skipped the melting cheese and tossed in a handful of feta instead, because spinach + feta is fabulous.

Getting ready to roll out the dough.

Rather than making small ones like the recipe suggests, I used a large bowl to make big empanadas. I like to have lots of filling, so I think you get a better filling-pastry ratio when you make a big empanada rather than a little one!

Dump on filling and brush water on the edges of the circle.

Fold in half and use a fork to seal. I also like the roll the edges over a bit after pressing.

Bake until golden! And I cheat a little bit - I like to stick 'em under the broiler for about a minute after they are cooked to get that nice brown on the top.

These are really good, and can be filled with anything you like (I think a mushroom filling would be fantastic, and for the kiddies, you could easily knock off those pizza pop things). However, they are a lot of work, with the rolling and the filling and so forth, so not exactly something I will be making every week. They are terrific for lunches, since they are pretty good cold, and they actually heat up not too badly in the microwave if you don't go too overboard. Also great for dinner if you put a big pile of veggies or a salad on the side.