Coffin Empanadas

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.

Dough

1. 110g/3.9 oz of water
2. 110g/3.9 oz of olive oil
3. 350g/12.3 oz of plain flour
4. 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. 1 egg
2. 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

1. fork
2. rolling tin
3. knife

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.

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.

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.