Humita Empanadas Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin.
• Line the muffin cups with the 12 pastry rounds.
• Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir green onions until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add corn, salt, pepper, and nutmeg; cook and stir until heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
• Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat; add flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until a paste forms, about 1 minute. Slowly pour in milk, whisking constantly, and cook until a thick sauce forms and starts to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes. Add half of the Parmesan cheese and stir until smooth; remove from heat. Stir sauce into corn mixture.
• Fill pastry with corn mixture and top each with remaining Parmesan cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden, about 15 minutes.

Steps:

• Make the filling: Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook until smooth and bubbly, about 3 minutes. Add the milk slowly while whisking constantly. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, paying special attention to the corners of the saucepan. Add the paprika and salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the corn and parsley, return to a simmer. Scrape the filling into a bowl and cool completely before filling wrappers.
• To Form: Moisten the edges of 1 of the empanada wrappers with a fingertip dipped in warm water. Center a generous 1/3-cup of the filling on the wrapper. Bring the sides of the wrapper together to meet over the filling and pinch the sides together to seal and form a half-moon shape. Lay the half-moon flat on the work surface. Work you way around the edges, bringing about 1/2-inch of the bottom layer of dough up and over the top layer, to make a mini-pleat. Press as you go to seal the pleats. If you don't want to mess with crimping, just seal the edges all the way around with the tips of the tines of a fork.
• Fry the Empanadas: (empanadas may also be baked; see Note below): Pour enough vegetable or canola oil into a large heavy skillet to fill about 3/4-inch up the sides. Heat over medium heat until the tip of the handle of a wooden spoon immersed in the oil gives off a lively sizzle, about 375 degrees F. Carefully slip as many of the empanadas into the oil as will fit without crowding. Cook until the dough is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Carefully flip and repeat. Drain briefly on paper towels before serving. Repeat with remaining empanadas.
• Note: To bake empanadas, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use a nonstick baking sheet. Bake until the empanadas are light golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool a few minutes before serving.

Steps:

• Dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour with the lard, butter, and salt. Mix lightly with your fingertips until the dough forms grapesized pieces. You should still be able to see streaks of fat. Stir in the water. Lightly knead, handling the dough as little as possible, until the dough forms a ball. Add a little more water if needed. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, then remove and let it return to room temperature, about 1 hour, before rolling. The dough can be frozen for as long as a week. Pinch off about half the dough. Roll out, on a floured surface, to a thickness of 1/8inch. Cut out 3inch circles. Then, gather the scraps, add to the rest of the dough, and roll out another batch of circles. Repeat, with the rest of the scraps. This should be enough dough for about 24 empanadas.
• Filling: In a large heavy skillet, over a medium high heat, saute the ground beef until the meat is browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Drain off the excess fat. Add the onion and saute 2 minutes. Then add the garlic, almonds, and raisins, and saute 1 minute. Place the tomatoes, chilies, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a blender and puree until smooth. Add the puree, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and salt and pepper to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes to get rid of any excess liquid. Cool. Place a spoonful of filling in the center of each circle of pastry. Fold over the pastry and seal the edges. Let the empanadas rest in the refrigerator 1/2 hour or freeze immediately. (Bake the frozen empanadas without defrosting.) Empanadas may be glazed (1 egg and 2 tablespoons milk, well beaten) and baked until golden in a 400 degree oven, for about 15 minutes. Or they may be deep-fried in oil at 375 degrees until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes a side. (If you deepfry them, make sure the edges are well sealed so the filling won't leak.)

Steps:

• Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.
• Beat together egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated. (Mixture will look shaggy.)
• Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand once or twice, just enough to bring dough together. Form dough into a flat rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour.