Empanadas are filled pastry popular in Spain, Portugal and some countries of Latin America. I know them from the Spanish part of our family, we actually eat them quite often. And this Halloween, I thought, why not make them coffin-shaped? (I actually wonder how I didn’t think of this before!)
To make empanadas is not difficult but it is a little time demanding. You can choose any savory filling you like, traditional in Spain would be spinach and egg or “tomate frito”. I will give you more examples in the supplies list.
Coffin Empanadas Recipe
Supplies
Dough
- 110g/3.9 oz of water
- 110g/3.9 oz of olive oil
- 350g/12.3 oz of plain flour
- 1/2 tsp of salt
Alternatives: You can replace some or all of the water with beer, I actually find the dough tastes better when beer’s used. You can also replace olive oil with rapeseed oil or sunflower oil, however, the empanadas taste better with olive oil.
Glaze
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp of milk
Filling
The filling can be anything savory you like. As I already mentioned, the traditional fillings would be spinach and egg and “tomate frito” (fried and steamed pieces of tomato or tomato with red pepper). There are two fillings I enjoy even more – Spanish Pisto which I make more finely cut for this purpose and with less juice and Baked Ketchup (I use the more dense batches for empanadas).
Other
- fork
- rolling tin
- knife
How to make the Coffin Empanadas
Make Dough
Combine flour and salt and then add water/beer and oil alternatively little by little. You can start kneading with a wooden spoon but very soon, you’ll have to knead with your hands. Knead properly, until the dough is absolutely smooth.
Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel or wrap the dough in a foil and let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours.
Make shapes and fill
Roll out the dough about 0,5 cm/0.2 in thick and into a rectangle.
Cut the dough into rectangles, they should preferably be equal (you can see I’m not very good in that).
Then cut every rectangle into a coffin shape, you can use the second photo as reference. Cut a cross in half of the coffins.
Put some filling on the coffins without the cross, leaving about 1,5 cm/0.6 in around all edges. Then cover the filling with a coffin with a cross and make sure the edges of both layers align. Then press around all the edges with a fork. The layers will stick together and the fork will give the edges a nice pattern.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F. Whisk the egg and 1 tbsp of milk and glaze the upper side of each coffin, avoid the cross.
Bake the empanadas for 25 minutes and let them cool down before serving.
