Empanadas Anyone???Daring Bakers Challenge Sept 2012

Hello...
Its that time of the month again...
Hormones go into overdrive and endorphins endorse all that is good about food.
Hot and spicy and hand held.Empanadas.
I am a rebel without a cause...so could not bear to do a whole pie which would be massacre"d" in the name of slices and dinner.

These are the crisp...straight out of the oven empanadas...
Crisp-which was surprising ,because this was bread dough.Almost like toast wrapped around the corn"y" filling.
My filling was corn"y" with olives...yours does not need to be. Next on, with the little left over dough I'll do chicken or maybe lamb...with a Indian touch!

We , in India are familiar with this shape..we make gujiyas every Holi.(The festival of colours)
Gujiyas are small hand held "pies" if you will...these are sweet, filled with coconut and nuts with some khoya-milk reduced and then deep fried.
Yum!
FYI-according to wiki...

An empanada  is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread.

Empanadas are made by folding dough or bread around stuffing, which usually consists of a variety of meat, cheese, huitlacoche, vegetables or fruits, among others. In Brazil, a variation of "empanada", called "Pastel" (Pastel (food)) is a very common day-by-day food, you find a variety of stuffings like: pizza, mozzarella, chicken with catupiry, meat, heart of palm, small shrimps, pork meat... but you can also find sweet "pastéis", filled with brigadeiro, goiabada (and goiabada with cheese), doce de leite...

The best part about this ,was that the dough was low in fat and was baked.
My only regret, no meat.
A low calorie snack or meal...good to go here in my home!
We need healthy and low calorie.
So this months the Daring Bakers Challenge was spot ON!

Blog-checking lines:

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 favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

As I post on blogger,sweet child is finishing off the last of the empanadas.
Actually 2 days late...but then the internet services are not servicable...so...

And I am off sharing this with you,now...

for the 

Empanadas Anyone???Daring Bakers 

Challenge Sept 2012...

you need

the dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried yeast

2 tbsp/30 mils Olive Oil

1/2 tsp sugar

1 pinch paprika

warm water to knead the dough

1 egg beaten for egg wash

the filling

1 large onion finely diced

8 cloves garlic

1 1/2 cup fresh shucked corn

8-10 olives

1 tsp olive oil/any neutral oil

3 tbsp grated cheese-I used mozzarella

salt, red chili flakes

herbs..whatever fresh or dried are available

Start with the dough.
Place the yeast and sugar with half a cup of warm water and set aside. Make sure you cover the yeast mix till it froths up.

Place the flour and salt and a pinch of paprika-deghi mirch (I like the bite) in a bowl.

And knead the dough with warm water till it is nice and elastic.Now add in the oil and cover and let it rest a while in a warm corner,till it is almost double.

Start with the filling.
Oil in the pan, to which you add the large diced onion.

Now add in the chopped cloves of garlic...I added some roasted garlic from the time I baked the focaccia bread.A few cloves were left...

Just translucent here...

My freezer has zip lock pouches of shucked corn- fresh frozen from my backyard...I used that and 

seasoned this with salt red chili flakes and rosemary, basil and oregano(the herbs were dried)...

Actually, I could not make up my mind...what would be apt.After eating them...the oregano seemed to fit 

the bill!

A quick toss, the halved olives and the fresh chives from the garden-garlic overload!

And the grated mozarella!

I should have waited till the corn was absolutely cool...but whatever...

Set the oven to 200C/400F.

Now the dough, not exactly doubled, but almost.

One lemon sized ball, rolled out to 3 mm thin and cut out with a steel bowl/cookie cutter.

Repeat the process till the filling or the dough exhausts itself.I had enough for a dinner for three.

A spoonful of filling in the centre  and the round folded over. You can seal this with beaten egg, or if you wish to skip the egg, a mix of flour and water will seal this well.

Set on the baking tray.

I sprinkled some flour on the trays before I began placing the empanadas.

Seal with the tynes of  a fork to make it look pretty.

An egg wash for the colour, milk if you are ova avoiding!

Into the oven for  35 minutes.Keep an eye on them ...you may need more or less time, depending on your

 oven.Out, low calorie, wholesome and novel bites for dinner.

Served on a bed of Salsa...

Thank you daring bakers
...
I learn something new each month...

Cant wait for the next month!

I'll stick to the hand held version , but a meat filling is what waits...



So what are you baking today???