Didn't have much time to cook holiday delectables for Thanks- giving this year, but I so wanted to make a couple of empanadas for a little sit down dessert with a friend. So I picked up three granny smith apples and some dried cranberries. Here's how to do it.
Empanadas are pocket pies, for want of a better description. For the crust, use one and a half cups flour; a dash of salt; about two and a half tablespoons of sugar; a half teaspoon of cinnamon; and a pinch of cayenne (optional) but surprisingly wonderful. Mix them together in a bowl. Into that put two and a half tablespoons of butter, cold, cut into little bits. Either use a pastry cutter, or a fork, or for the intrepid, fingers. Cut butter into flour mix until it looks like a corn meal. If you use your fingers, rub the mixture between thumb and four fingers lightly and quickly until you have achieved the same effect. You want to try to avoid melting the butter, so if you have hot hands, try a fork. Once you have achieved the corn meal effect, add these ingredients mixed together: half a whisked egg, a half teaspoon of vinegar, and about a teaspoon ice cold water. Work the wet into flour/butter mixture. If it seems a tad too dry, add a few drops more cold water. Split dough in half and wrap into plastic wrap, flattening them into a disk once wrapped. Pop those puppies into the fridge to chill for an hour at least.
Peel and slice apples, and then cut each slice in half (since it's a pocket pie, you need smaller pieces than you would normally put into a pie). (I only used two and a half apples, because they were large and I could tell I had more than I needed.) Then add a handful of dried cranberries and grate in about half an inch of a small ginger finger. In a separate little bowl, mix two tablespoons flour and about a quarter cup sugar, and teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix it together. Then add it to the apple mix.
Roll out the two disks of crust. (A little trick I used since I was working on a granite counter, was to tear off a piece of wax paper, sprinkle a bit of flour onto it, and roll out the dough on that. Then when it's time to fold the dough onto itself, you need only pick up the wax paper and fold it over. Makes for fast clean up, too.) Onto each piece of dough, place enough filling to make you happy (but not so much you won't be able to close it). Place it on half the rolled out dough, so you can fold the other half over the top. Pinch the edges together and then crimp them with a fork. Then brush a tiny bit of half and half (or water or milk) over the empanada and then sprinkle sugar over it.
Place on parchment paper on a sheet (or use foil, like I did). Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees, or 360 in a convection oven) for approximately twenty minutes until the crust is nice and golden. Cool a bit, but best eaten warm. Happy Holidays!
