Monthly Cooking Assignment - Cassandra Hour 1-

     For my monthly cooking assignment, I decided to make empanadas. Empanadas are basically a sweet pastry that you can stuff with almost anything. I stuffed mine with chicken, vegetables, and seasonings.
      To make the the dough I used the biscuit method. It was identical to the one we learned in class. For example, we had to sift the flour and mix it with the salt. We also had to cut-in the shortening into the dry ingredients mixture. Adding small amounts of water into the dough mixture was another similarity.
     I did notice a few mistakes. First of all, the recipe said you may need to add a few extra tablespoons of water. I'm almost positive I used too much water. Another mistake was that the recipe said to refrigerate the kneaded dough for about one hour. I only put it in there for half an hour. I also put too much of the chicken filling inside the dough and it ended up leaking out the sides. Overall, the few mistakes I did make, didn't majorly effect the final product.
     When I read over this recipe, I knew right away there were a few things I wanted to take out, and a few things I wanted to add in. The ingredients that caught my eye were the hard boiled eggs and the green olives. Instead of those, I added black olives, cilantro, and green chilies. The ingredients I added ended up making the empanadas taste amazing.
        The empanadas had a golden color and they were also a bit shiny. I'm guessing that was from the egg wash. They tasted salty from the seasonings, and sweet from the dough and the caramelized onions. They smelled so good! The aroma was sweet, but still a bit spicy . Overall, I would definitely make them again. I learned that just because a recipe says you may need to add extra water, doesn't mean you actually have to.

    

Dough Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 12 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening, chilled
• 3/4 - 1 cup water
• 2 egg yolks

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl. Stir in the salt and the sugar.
   
2. Blend the butter and shortening (or lard) into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or with two knives, until fairly well blended.
   
3. Whisk the egg yolks wiht 3/4 cups water. Stir in the 1/2 cup of water/egg mixture, a little at a time until the dough starts to come together smoothly. Keep kneading the dough, adding more water/egg a little bit at a time as necessary (you made need a few tablespoons extra of water), until the dough is smooth. The dough will seem a bit shaggy until it has thoroughly chilled.
   
4. Cover the dough with saran wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. (Dough can also be kept overnight (or a couple of days) in the refrigerator) Dough should be soft and smooth, and not elastic - if you poke a hole in it with your finger, the indentation should remain.
   
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and roll into desired thickness.)

Empanada Filling:

1. 2-3 chicken breasts (or 2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken)
2. 1 bay leaf
3. 1 chicken bouillon cube
4. 1/4 cup vegetable oil
5. 2 large onions, chopped
6. 1 tablespoon paprika
7. 1 teaspoon cumin
8. 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
9. 1.5 tablespoons sugar
10. salt and pepper
11. 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
12. 1/2 cup green olives, sliced
13. 1 egg yolk
14. 1 tablespoon water

Preparation:

1. Prepare empanada dough and chill.
   
2. Poach the chicken: Place the chicken breasts in a pot with the bouillon and bay leaf, and cover with water or chicken broth.
   
3. Bring to a boil, and simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Let cool in the broth.
   
4. Shred chicken into small pieces, and moisten with 1 or 2 tablespoons of the broth. Set aside.
   
5. Heat oil in a skillet. Add chopped onions, paprika, cumin, chile powder, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.
   
6. Cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until onions are soft and clear, and mixture is golden brown.
   
7. Remove from heat and stir in the chicken. For best flavor, refrigerate filling until the next day.
   
8. Stir chopped hard boiled egg and olives into filling mixture.
   
9. Separate empanada dough into golf ball size pieces, and roll each one into a smooth ball. Let rest 5 minutes.
   
10. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
    
11. On a floured surface, roll each ball of dough into a circle about 6 inches in diameter.
    
12. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of filling in the middle of the circle. Brush the edges of the dough along the bottom half of the circle lightly with water.
    
13. Fold the top half of the circle of dough over the filling to form a semicircle, and press edges together firmly to seal.
    
14. Brush the pressed edge with a little bit of water, and fold the edge over itself, pinching and crimping as you go to make a braid-like effect. (see Tips and Techniques for Beautiful Empanadas). Place empanadas on a baking sheet.
    
15. Mix egg yolk with water and brush mixture lightly over entire surface of each empanada.
    
16. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and slightly puffed.