Cuban Empanadas
From the kitchen of Paolo Andino (M.F.A. ’97)
“I love these empanadas because they are a classic Cuban staple, and eating them is like biting into my childhood and everything that is delicious and familiar,” Andino says. “This recipe is my great grandmother’s who I never met. Her daughter (my grandmother) passed when I was 15 years old, and because I love to cook my father gave me her handwritten notebook of recipes. Whenever I make these, I feel a great connection with my ancestors and my culture. It’s like I am keeping them alive.”
Ingredients
2 cups pastry flour
½ stick butter, cubed then frozen
1 tablespoon Crisco
2 tablespoon dry sherry
4-5 tablespoon syrup, dissolve 1 tablespoon sugar in water and add an ice cube
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Cheese filling
8-ounce container cream cheese, room temperature
½ pound Gruyere cheese grated
Cilantro lime dipping sauce
1 8-ounce container sour cream
Juice of half a lime
2 scallions, chopped
Fresh cilantro sprigs to taste
Salt and pepper
Equipment needed
Electric mixer with pasta sheet attachment; the pasta can also be made by hand by using a rolling pin on a lightly floured work surface.
Preparation
Day 1
1. Place mixing bowl and paddle, hook and whisk attachments in freezer for half an hour.
2. In the mixer with whisk attachment, sift the flour, salt and baking powder.
3. Change mixer attachment to beater. Add egg and beat swiftly, then Crisco and beat until combined.
4. Add butter in three batches and beat until combined.
5. Add sherry and water to make a silky textured dough. As the dough becomes one mass, the mixer’s hook attachment may be needed.
6. Beat for 30 seconds and make nickel sized balls from the dough. Handle the dough as little as possible, so the butter does not melt.
7. Wrap the dough balls securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Leave dough balls in fridge overnight.
Day 2
1. Combine cream cheese with grated Gruyere in the mixer.
2. Working quickly, take five dough balls out of the fridge, press one into a disk shape with your fingers and pass through the pasta maker on the widest setting, No. 1. Change the setting of pasta maker to No. 2 and pass the dough through twice. Repeat until you reach setting No. 5 and the dough ball is a thin flat round disk. Place the dough on a floured work surface so it doesn’t stick and fill with one tablespoon of filling.
3. Brush perimeter with a beaten egg and fold over, pressing lightly to eliminate air bubbles and seal with a fork.
4. Fry in vegetable oil at 350 degrees. When cooking, pierce the center of the dough to let the steam out. Refrigerate overnight and cover with plastic wrap.
5. Accompany the cheese empanadas with a cilantro/lime dipping sauce.