Last weekend suddenly I had a craving for Empanadas de Manzana or Apple Empanadas. I never made those before, so I took one of my Spanish cookbooks on empanadas and looked up a recipe for a filling.  The difference between Spanish empanadas and empanadas from Latin America is that Spanish empanadas are usually large and circular in shape and are cut into smaller portions for consumption, whereas in Latin America empanadas are normally small and semi-circular. Anyway, it was a recipe for the filling I was looking for.

I combined this filling with an easy and quick recipe for sweet empanada dough. And after an hour or two I was enjoying some delicious Empandas de Manzana. Here’s the recipe for about 20 – 25 empanadas (5 inch) and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Dough ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 – 4 tablespoons water
• ¼ – ½ cup of sugar (depending your taste)
• pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional)

Dough preparation:

1. Mix the flour, the sugar, salt and cinnamon powder in a food processorer
2. Add eggs, butter and water and mix until a clumpy dough forms
3. Take the dough out of the foodprocessor
4. On a floured surface knead by hand until the dough comes together
5. Wrap the dough in plastic or put in a covered bowl. Chill in a fridge for 1 hour

In stead of using a foodprocessor you could also put all the ingredients in a large bowl and work them with a fork or a spoon. While the dough is resting in the fridge you can make the filling.

Filling ingredients:

• 8 medium sized apples like Granny Smith or Gold
• ½ cup raisins
• juice of half a lemon
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Filling preparation:

1. Peel apples, decore and cut into small cubes
2. Mix apple cubes with lemon juice
3. Add sugar, cinnamon powder and raisins and mix well

Empanada preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the dough in 20 to 25 even pieces and roll them into a ball.
3. Flatten balls on a floured surface into 5 inch disks, about 1/8 inches in thickness.
4. Put about 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center and fold over the disk, enclosing the filling.
5. Press edges together to seal and crimp the edges with your fingers using the repulgue technique or by using a fork
6. Beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush the empanadas before baking.
7. Bake the empanadas in the middel of the oven for about 15-20 minutes until golden. The exact time depends on the size of your empanadas.
8. Serve warm. Before serving you can sprinkle them with some sugar.