This is more a recipe for the dough, rather than for the empanadas. Empanadas is just one of the dishes you can use this dough for: rugelach, deep-dish savoury pies, cobblers (especially when it's cut into separate overlapping disks for the top of the crust) or for any top-crust-only pie.
This dough is flaky, extremely tender and delicate, almost like puff pastry. I took this recipe from Nick Malgieri's "Pastry Perfection".
Ingredients:
270 g unbleached plain flour
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
225 g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
150 ml sour cream
Method:
Combine the flour and salt in the bowl, mix well. Add the butter to the flour and using the knife, cut the butter into the flour until it's finely mixed into and no visible pieces remain. ***You can do this in a food processor, just pulse several times to mix.
Spread the sour cream all over the top of the flour and butter mixture.
Bring it quickly altogether with the fingertips, don't mix it too much or intense, just until the dough starts to form a ball. Don't overmix, or the flaky quality of the dough will be lost! ***If you use food processor, pulse 3-4 times if the dough is already starting to form a ball, stop pulsing. If not, pulse a few more times.
Invert the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
Sour cream dough empanadas.
The process of making sour cream dough empanadas is the same I made with the yeast-risen dough.
Make the filling according to the recipe: Argentine Chicken Empanadas (Empanadas de Famaillá).
Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 200 C. Divide the sour cream dough into 8 pieces, shape them into flat disks, roll each of them into an 20 cm disk, place the filling and make the empanadas. Arrange them on a baking tray lined with parchment, and brush them with the egg wash.
Place the tin in the oven, reduce the temperature to 190 C and bake for 20-25 minutes until deep golden.
Cool the empanadas briefly on the tray on a rack and serve warm.
Bon Appetit!
