Pulled Pork Empanadas

[lunchman]

I wanted to try something I've never made before using the Pulled Pork from yesterday. I looked through a good number of recipe ideas and finally settled on

Pulled Pork Empanadas.

Yep, playing with dough - right up my alley. :loco: And worthy of its own thread.

I found an Empanada dough recipe, cranked out a batch this morning and let it refrigerate for a while.

Obligatory dough ball photo. This was half the amount. I used only one dough ball to practice on which turned out 8 Empanadas -



Rolled out -



About yay thin -



What have I got that's about 4" in diameter? Yep, that'll do -



I rolled them out a bit bigger than 4" to get them a tad thinner. Then into the fridge for a while to chill so we're always working with cold dough -



Assembly time. My helper seems to like her dad's Pulled Pork. Some chopped up pork, a bit of BBQ sauce and a bit of cheddar on a few of them. Wet an edge, fold and then practice the crimping technique -



Done. After being in the fridge to chill again, hit 'em with a bit of egg wash -



Into a 375F oven for about 25 minutes and they're looking quite decent with only one minor rupture -





Lunch is served -



Let's see how we did -



A little extra Bourbon BBQ sauce for dipping -





Bottom's nicely browned, too -



My crimping technique isn't too bad, but I need more practice. Good thing I have another disc of dough in the fridge -



These turned out better than I expected. Perhaps a bit more BBQ sauce on the inside but I didn't want to risk making them soggy, so the sauce on the side worked out just fine.

I've got a ton of different ideas for fillings and these will be on my list of recipes to keep. The dough is easy to make, they're fun to put together and the results are worth the minimal effort. A plus is these are baked, not fried.

Thanks for following along on this Pulled Pork Empanada experiment!

Regards,
-lunchman

 

[frankenfab]

Good looking food, and a pretty cat!

 

[ssv3]

Empanadas + pulled pork = WIN!

 

[Stingerhook]

Nailed it Dom.

 

[Titch]

They look great, cute cat

 

[ShadowDriver]

Killer, Dom!

 

[BGEChicago]

Dom,

Boy those look fantastic. You have really been knocking it out of the park lately!!

Thanks,
Greg

 

[tom b]

Looks awesome, grate Idea Dom

 

[KevinJ]

Great idea, thanks for sharing.

 

[LordRiffenstein]

Great idea for lephtovers, they look delicious!

 

[Big George's BBQ]

That looks great Would love to have some of them

 

[fwdiii]

Oh man, they are on the money!!! Looks delicious, and you have given me another idea!!

 

[lunchman]

Thanks all. These were kinda fun to make and not overly difficult. The part that looked most challenging was the braided crimp or repulgue, as it's called and I found a YouTube video that showed how easy it was to do. I was not going to wuss out and use a fork.

For anyone looking for the dough recipe I followed, check out the site www.laylita.com. I looked at a bunch of recipes, all fairly similar in technique and ingredients but went with hers since she had both baked and fried dough versions.

-Dom

 

[robertm]

Yep going to need to try that! Like you said, tons of different idea come to mind of what to fill with.

Thanks for the link as well. The lady seems to know her empanadas.

 

[lunchman]

Apple Pie Empanadas

What to do with the second disc of dough in the fridge?

Well, I had a number of apples that needed some attention, so I diced them up small so they'd fit better in the pies. I mixed them with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Just so they weren't going into the hand pies uncooked into my cast iron skillet they went -



Rolled out the dough into slightly larger than 4" discs and filled them like I did with the pulled pork -



Practiced my crimping technique. Egg wash and into a 375 F oven for about 25 minutes -



Hardly any blowouts and they're looking good -



Plated -







These turned out quite good and are just another idea as to what to do with this dough. It's very much like a pie dough so the Empanadas turn out flaky.

Regards,
-Dom