empanada dough

I was recently in a hole-in-the-wall Argentinian restaurant and spotted an interesting bit of artwork. On one of their walls was a framed recipe for empanada dough -- it was written in Spanish and looked very old. Using my spot-on translation abilities, I determined that the recipe called for a kilogram of flour, 250 grams of lard, salt to taste, and "enough water to make it work."

Seeing that this recipe used a weight-based ratio (4 parts flour to 1 part lard), I set out to see if I could replicate the dough at home. It worked out spectacularly -- crisp and flaky, offering a perfect complement to both sweet and savory fillings (as long as the filling isn't sopping wet or warm when you assemble the empanada).

Here's what I came up with:

2 cups AP flour (10 oz. by weight)
1/3 c. lard or shortening (2.5 oz. by weight)
l tsp table salt
1/2 c. ice water

Mix the salt and flour in a large bowl. Rub the lard (or shortening) into the flour mixture with the tips of your fingers until it begins to resemble pea-sized pebbles. Next, add the ice water and mix until just combined. Press into a 6 inch disk and wrap in plastic. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

When you are ready to prepare the empanadas, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut the disk into 4 chunks. Flour your work surface and roll one out with a floured rolling pin until it is 1/8 of an inch thick. You should be able to cut 6 four-inch rounds out of each (freehand with a sharp paring knife if you don't have a pastry cutter).

Place a small amount of cold filling in the middle of each round, brush the edges with a bit of egg wash, fold into a half-moon, and crimp as desired -- some people fold the edges decoratively while others simply crimp with the tines of a fork.

Place the prepared empanadas on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place into the preheated oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is blistered and well-browned.