Empanadas

DOUGH:

9 level cups of flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

180 grams lard / shortening – or can use butter

1-1/2 cups hot water + 1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 egg yolks

GLAZE: 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk (glaze before baking)

FILLING:

1 kg ground beef

1/3 cup oil for cooking the ground beef (*I did not use this; there was more than enough grease from the ground beef)

1 onion, chopped fine

1 tablespoon chili powder

~1/2 teaspoon salt +/-

pepper to taste

parsley, chopped, ~ 1/3 cup

1 tablespoon flour dissolved in a small amount of cold water

1 olive, 1 raisin, and 1 piece of hard boiled egg in each empanada

PREPARATION:

Heat the oil in a skillet. Cook the ground beef, chili powder, salt, pepper, parsley, for a few minutes. Add the onion and cook, covered, about ten minutes. Finally add the flour dissolved in water, and stir to mix.

To make the dough, place the flour, with the baking powder mixed in, on a bread board. Form into a mound with a depression at the top, like a volcano. Put the melted/thawed lard/butter in the depression. Mix a little with your hands, then add the white wine, egg yolks, and the warm salt water little by little. Mix well with your hands until it forms a dough. It should be smooth and firm. Cover it to keep it warm.

Take small portions of the dough, about the size of a tennis ball, knead well, then roll out the dough with a rolling pin (or a smooth bottle) to form a disc about 20 cm in diameter and 2-3 mm thick.

Place about 2 tablespoons of filling, 1 piece of egg, 2 raisin, and 1 olive in the middle of the disc of dough. Fold over the dough to cover the meat, so that the top layer is about 1 cm shorter than the bottom layer, and fold the round edges in to form a triangle, with the meat inside. Squeeze together with the fingers at the three corners. Pinch together with thumb and fingers in 2-3 places and glaze the outside with the milk and egg yolk mixture, using your fingers.

Place as many empanadas on a greased cookie sheet as will fit. Cook in the oven at 250C (482F) for about 30 minutes. (but keep an eye on them, they may cook faster)