Pre-heat oven to 400 and set dough rounds out well in advance to come to room temperature. If the dough is still frozen, it will not fold well, but be careful not to let it get too warm as it will tear and be sticky.
Prepare the meat. Assuming the cut of meat you have purchased is thin, you should be able to roll it tightly two or three times over in a cylindrical shape. Slice thin rolls off the end of the cylinder with a sharp knife, going back over the meat to thinly dice any long strings or chunks. You are aiming for 1/8″ chunks of meat. This may seem a little annoying when ground beef is readily available, but much of the empanada’s flavor comes from the type of meat used.
Prepare the vegetables. Hard boil, cool, and dice two eggs and set aside in a small bowl. Finely dice the bell peppers, onion, and green onion.
Cook. Brown all meat in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell peppers, and cook over medium heat until onions become translucent. Add the spice packet, salt, butter or shortening, and olives (if using), mixing well. Cook another ~10 minutes. Turn off the stove but leave the mixture on the heat, mixing in the green onions as the final step. The mixture should be well combined with just a little excess juice from the butter+spices. Taste to adjust spice content, noting that the spices and salt will intensify over time, especially if freezing.
Roll. Now open up your dough rounds and get ready. You’re also going to want to have a small bowl of room temperature water on hand. Take a dough round off the top and hold it flat in your left hand. With your right hand, spoon ~2 tablespoons of the meat mixture into the middle of the dough, careful not to overfill. Place 2-3 small pieces of egg on top.
Quickly dip your finger in water and trace the inside edge of the dough round. With your right hand, pull the bottom half of the dough up over the top half to form a half moon as shown in the video. Then pinch both sides of the half moon together all the way around. You should now be holding a half moon shape in your left hand with the straight edge on the bottom near your wrist.
Starting at the bottom right, take the corner of the pinched dough and fold it up using your right pointer finger and thumb, pinching to seal. Repeat this all around the crest of the half moon. You can form tighter or looser folds depending on the aesthetic you want. The last fold will produce a little tail of dough, which you should tuck under to the backside of the half moon, pinching well to seal in the filling.
If the dough is tearing or becoming sticky, place it in the fridge for half an hour or the freezer for 10 minutes to cool back down.
Bake. When all the empanadas are folded, lay them out on a baking sheet on tinfoil and brush the tops with a beaten egg wash (not necessary but it makes them extra shiny and browned). Bake on 400 for 20 minutes or until golden and serve hot.
If you want to make your empanadas in bulk as I do (3-4 dozen at a time), you will want to store them in an airtight container in the freezer separated by parchment paper. If not separated, the dough will stick together and chip when broken apart, leaving holes in your empanadas.
Variations! Empanadas come in many shapes and sizes, with some Central American empanadas containing ingredients such as potatoes and peas. The recipe above is for traditional Argentinian empanadas, often called “salada” (salty), “picante” (spicy), or “salteñas” (originally from Salta). They are the traditional counterpart to the “dulces” (sweet) which are made without egg or olive, and with raisins and sugar (I know it sounds odd, but they are REALLY good). I frequently separate out some of the mixture after adding the spices, and add in the raisins and sugar to make both types at once.
Other variations include: “jamón y queso” (ham and a soft, white cheese), “humita” or “choclo” (corn, red pepper, green onion, and soft white cheese), “roquefort” (blue cheese), and “árabes” (arab empanadas are triangular in shape, made with more common dough than puff pastry, and contain ground beef, red bell pepper, and a lot of paprika; they are eaten by biting off the top triangular corner and squeezing the juice of a lemon wedge down into the empanada).
Then, of course, this recipe can be used to make Pumpkin Pasties! The pumpkin-filled sweet pasties are best served with a side of freshly whipped cream.
