September Daring Bakers' Challenge: Empanadas

This month's baking challenge was interesting for me. I'm not quite sure why, but I never could really bring myself to getting into gear and completing the challenge. The challenge itself—empanadas—wasn't intimidating or even hard sounding, but it wasn't until tonight (aka when the blog post was due) that I got around to getting the silly thing done.

I decided to make a sweet empanada instead of a savory one; not really for any reason except that I like to make sweet things. Inspiration struck when I saw some apples from our deaf family friends, the Simons. (Back story: Our family and the Simon family have known each other FOREVER.... as in since the mid-60s, which is well before me, making it FOREVER ago.... like how I do that? Yeah, me, too!)

ANYWHO!

The Simons have a wonderful backyard apple orchard and they are kind enough to share their bounty with us each year. Most of the apples from their trees are turned into our family's applesauce supple. This year, they also became some apple/cranberry pies for our church's fall festival's pie booth. I had a few straggler apples, which sparked my theory that making an apple dessert empanada was the way to go, and I was right!

I found a recipe online and decided it was best to get into gear and make the darned thing. I had all of the ingredients on hand, which helped me decide which recipe to choose. While putting the empanada dough together, I realized that I've made a VERY similar dough in the past and it was courtesy of another very dear and longtime family friend (Mary Elzy); her dough was used to hug a mushroom concoction (sorry, the exact recipe is eluding me at the moment and I'm too tired to look for it) that was definitely in the savory department. That said, the dough similarities were striking.

The recipe recommended eating the empanadas warm, and being one who follows directions well, I did just that. They turned out to be quite a tasty treat and the absolute perfect size. I cut approximately 4-inch dough circles, which resulted in 3-4 bite empanadas. I equate them to a cake pop or cupcake ... just enough to give you a good taste, but without all of the guilt associated with a bigger dessert. :)

We were supposed to use one of the dough recipes provided by the challenge host, but I forgot that fact until right now.... WHOOPS!!! That's what I get for waiting until the 11th hour and being so tired!

Sweet Apple Empanadas

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!