How to make a flaky and moist pie/empanada dough - Esencias Panamenas (2024)

FAQs

Why put vinegar in empanada dough? ›

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.

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.

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.

Add 2½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 stick butter, 1 egg, ¼ cup cold water, and 1 pinch salt to a food processor fitted with a dough blade. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. See notes if mixing by hand.

But there are two much more important perks to using vinegar: it provides a little insurance against overworking the dough. And, that splash of vinegar will keep your dough from oxidizing and turning gray.

Vinegar helps with the rise of our baked goods

When vinegar reacts with baking soda, it creates carbon dioxide bubbles, which act as leavening agents. So as the batter bakes, these tiny bubbles expand, causing the cake to rise and giving it that light, airy texture we all love.

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

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.

Prepare flavorful homemade empanadas easily with convenient GOYA® Tapas Criollas – Dough for Turnover Pastries, which are perfect for baking or frying. They have a round disk shape and are made from wheat flour and margarine.

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.

What pastry is empanadas made from? ›

Ingredients in Empanada dough

Flour – Just plain / all purpose flour. Butter – cold, cut into cubes so it's easy to blitz into fine crumbs in the flour. Tiny little bits of butter throughout the pastry is what makes it beautifully flaky! Egg – Eggs are not usually included in traditional shortcrust pastry.

Don't skip the bread flour or the vinegar; both are key to making a stretchy but light dough.

I found that white vinegar always help with the egg especially when you are working with raw eggs like in this recipe so I always like to add little white vinegar to the mixture, it will help you with avoiding any egg smell especially if you ae not using free range fresh eggs.

Can homemade empanada dough be frozen? Yes, either before or after cutting dough into individual empanada discs, it may be frozen for up to 3 months. To prevent discs from sticking together, place a piece of wax paper or parchment between each one.