How to Make Empanada Dough (Masa Para Empanadas) in 6 Easy Steps (2024)

FAQs

What is empanada dough made of? ›

Today we're making homemade empanada dough that can be used to make pastelillos, empanadas, and so much more! It's made with just 5 ingredients (flour, butter, salt, egg, and water) and comes together in less than an hour.

Argentine empanadas with beef, cheese, or chicken. Chilean empanadas with beef, cheese, or seafood. Mexican empanadas with spicy beef, potato, or pumpkin.

For Empanada Dough: 3 cups flour. 1/2 t baking powder. 1 t salt.

Adding a little vinegar to your dough will result in a tender, pliable, and flaky crust because it slightly inhibits gluten development, leading to a crust that is flakier and easier to work with. The great thing about vinegar is that you really only need a little bit of it to help your pie/empanada dough.

Empanadas have their origin in the Spanish action Empanar connoting “wrap in bread.” Traditional empanadas hence are simply beef stuffing wrapped in pastry dough. Beef empanadas are small palm-sized meat pockets. They resemble the Arabian Samosas and Italian calzones.

A standard Ilocos empanada recipe calls for rice flour, water, salt, and oil. But for the Batac version, you need to add atsuete powder for that eye-catching orange hue. Meanwhile, the Vigan empanadas are pale, and their dough is thinner, producing a crisp shell.

Both cooking methods produce delicious empanadas. If you want a healthier merienda, bake them in the oven. If you're working with less time, frying them is the way to go. Try both and ask your loved ones to vote on their favorite.

What Can You Substitute for Empanada Dough? If you're looking for a shortcut, store-bought pie dough can be used to make empanadas. You may need to roll the dough out slightly thinner—it will produce a flakier result than typical empanada dough and is better for baking than frying.

The best way to keep fried foods crispy? Just place them on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. If you're frying multiple batches, throw the whole setup into a low oven to keep everything warm as you keep frying and adding to the rack.

Handle the dough as little as possible. The more I handled each empanada, the quicker they seemed to dry out and start to crack. Do not overfill your empanadas. Trying to close your dough over a too-large mound of filling is just asking for it.

Is empanada dough the same as tortilla dough? ›

If you know how to make homemade flour tortillas, you know how to make empanada dough for frying. There's not a lot of difference — chief one being that you use ice water with empanada dough, and hot water for tortillas. Another difference is the flour.

While pie dough is designed to be flaky, empanada dough is meant to be more tender. Pastry for empanadas has a higher flour-to-fat ratio, making it sturdy and perfect for wrapping around meaty fillings. Some recipes use lard or an additional egg as the fat source, but our recipe keeps it simple and easy with butter.

Pizza dough and empanada dough are different for one significant reason: Pizza dough uses yeast to allow it to rise, whereas empanada dough does not. Empanadas don't require resting time or lots of kneading. In fact, the less you work the dough, the better, as it leaves the pastry tender and flaky.