Empanadas

Who doesn't love an empanada? These baked empanadas are made with an Argentinian style dough that is super easy to handle and compatible with any filling your heart desires. They are almost endlessly adaptable and they can be made a frozen in advance - a lovely gift to your future self!
Ingredients:
3 cups/ 375 g flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons/ 6 ounces cold unsalted butter*, in cut into 12 pieces
2 eggs (1 for dough, 1 for egg wash)
1/3 cup milk* or water
4-5 cups filling of choice (cooked meat, potatoes, veggies, beans, cheese...)
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl or food processor. Stir briefly (bowl) or pulse once or twice (food processor). Add butter to flour mixture and cut in with pastry blender (bowl) or pulse (food processor) until mixture is the texture of coarse sand with some pea-sized pieces of butter. Add milk/ water and one egg to the mixture and stir (bowl) or pulse (food processor) until dough just holds together. Put dough onto a floured counter and knead a few times by hand. Cover dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days, refrigerated. When ready to form empanadas, whisk the second egg with a little water. Flour the counter, line a baking sheet, and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Break off golf ball sized pieces of dough (about 40 grams, give or take a few), roll into balls, and then roll out into roughly oval-shaped disks. Place a large spoonful of filling slightly off center and brush the edge of the dough with egg wash. Carefully fold the dough over the filling and press edges together to seal. If the dough tears a bit, use egg wash and a bit more dough to make a patch. You can use the tines of a fork or your fingers to make a decorative edge if you'd like. Place empanadas on baking sheet and brush tops with egg wash. Bake for 18-25 minutes, depending on size, until empanadas are golden brown.
Yield: 18-25 empanadas, depending on size
Make ahead: Empanada dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for 6 months. Fully formed, unbaked empanadas, well wrapped, can be frozen for up to 6 months. No need to thaw before baking, just add 3-4 minutes to the total baking time.
*Empanada dough can be made dairy/ lactose free by using shortening or non-dairy margarine and water in place of the butter and milk.
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