Brick oven empanadas

[DrakeRemoray]

Oh MAN, those look terrific!! Yum yum yum yum yum!

Drake

[james]

WOW. These might win the "Best Food Photo" award for the year. Excellent. I really have to do this.

Luis, how hot was your oven? How long did you fire it and let it cool? That would be helpful.

James

[CanuckJim]

Congrats

Luis,

Congratulations on fine food and a fine series of pictures. That was a lot of work, and it was very fine of you to share your secrets. These are definitely on my to do list for my oven. Like James, I'd like to know an approx hearth brick or air temp.

Do you deliver?

Jim

[arevalo53anos]

Empanadas temperature.

Thanks you all!



You know, baking empanadas, like as pizza, is a matter of individual taste.

There are these that like NY or VPN pizza style, there are those that go by cracker or calzoni ones.

The empanadas dough could use lard (traditional), butter or even fine oil. Traditional or pastry dough is ok, too.

By filling it is possible to use chopped meat, ham and cheese, fish and smashed potatoes or even sweet ones with quince and cheese (traditional too).

Still, the empanadas could be baked or fried (in lard or oil).

The best results, by tradition, are lard dough filled with meat and fried in melted lard.

However, the empanadas in the pictures were very good and for sure deserve a treat.

All this words to say that the best temperature depends in which you empanada type is.

Since I had baked a turkey with potatoes on Saturday night by one hour and forty five minutes at 650/700 ?F, the oven had embedded temperature and was not necessary to run a lot of fire to bake the empanadas.

The hearth was nearly of 570 ?F and the ambient at 660?F. There was some fire (mostly coal) in the oven, given an ?elegant? charred aspect to finished empanadas.

The baking time was between 10 to 15 minutes with a closed eye in the food.

The big empanada take more 5 minutes, because the lot of filling and the pan. With the upper dough a little charred, I was sure that the lower one be ok.



I hope this help.



Luis

[arevalo53anos]

A lot of baking on this week-end.

Tom Lehmann?s, natural leavened marguerite pizza, meat pie (empanada dough), apple pie, corn/cheddar bread, French baggetes and a 9 hour baked rip.

Yum!

Luis

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Hi, all.
When in holidays, I spend some time baking and cooking, in Argentina, to my family.
Pizzas, empanadas and a looot of barbecues, of course, were to the table.
Talking a little more about the empanadas I would like to show some pictures of those including a few words to descript them.
From this thread you know that empanadas are.
From the ?empanadas argentinas? thread you know that you could find ready dough in supermarkets (at least in Vegas).
All the pictures shows empanadas that were baked in home oven, differently that the previous one in this thread that were baked in wood oven at highest temperature. I had not a temperature reader in hands but I believe that the temperature was 250?C (480?F).
The first photo (labeled 2) shows a big empanada (torta pascualina) made with commercial dough. The dough used was ?La Salte?a? ?pastry kind- like the one that the member Stryke had mentioned in past thread. This was excellent, and I recommend it to be used when out of time to work with dough.
The second picture (15) shows two different hands made empanadas dough. A typical one worked with lard (as in this thread) and the pastry dough (right, white one) before resting in refrigerator and waiting to be shaped.
Third and fourth pictures (16-17) shows a torta pascualina (pastry) and empanadas (lard). The children had worked on these, is why the different sizes and finishing.
The two following photos (19-20) could give an ideia about the filling and finished dough after baked.
The 22 is an interesting picture to compare the results of different dough and fillings. The lard dough forms were filled as traditional. The pastry dough empanadas were filled with ham, cheese, oregano and a pinch of both pepper and salt. Just before baking the pastry dough was coated with beaten egg.
The baked pascualina filled with meat, caramelized onions, olives, ham, cheese and species is showed in pictures 24, 25 and 26. See the layers of the pastry dough in this last picture.
If somebody is interested in, both of the empanadas type, pastry and lard, were quickly consumed, in despite of more good food on the table. The jury was no capable to choose a winner, this could be a work for you, when trying this recipes LOL.
Until the next baking time!

Luis

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

More pictures

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

I am soooo hungry those look fabulous!

Quick question, In the dough recipe above you write:
300 g (.66 lb) melted fat (baked) or 200 g (.44 lb) melted fat/lard (fried)

What is fat (baked) vs Fat/lard?

Thanks,
Drake

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Drake:

Sorry if I was not clear about this point.
The traditional empanadas do use lard (the pork one) and/or meat fat (both of these melted in slow fire and filtered).
If you have a delicate stomach, digestive apparel or a do not like the taste of fat or lard, it is possible to use butter in place of these.
The expression fat/lard meaning that any of both could be used.
The quantities of fat/lard are different if you are thinking to fry or bake the filled empanadas (as indicated).
I hope this helps.

Luis

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

so, for baking 300g fat, for frying 200g fat?

Drake

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Drake:

Yes.
However, if you were Homer Simpson, you would like to multiply by a big factor...LOL

Luis

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Great photos Luis...I've just been working on getting larger photos...I know how much work that they can be.

I did not see a mention of leaf lard, that is supposed to be the best lard... that I think comes from the stomach. Vaughn has been using lard for her pastries as it gives the best results...if not butter. Pork fat rules!

Thanks.

[CanuckJim]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Luis,

The empanadas I had at the Kensington Market in Toronto had the dough folded, letter style, over the filling. It was definitely a lard type dough. Is this traditional or regional? Nevertheless, mighty fine indeed....


Jim

[arevalo53anos]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Jim:

I wish I know the Kensington Market! I did ‘Google’ it and I would like to be there to taste the ‘letter empanadas’.
Hopefully, some day I will visit Canada. The nearest place that I was, it is Seattle, and I could had had two more steps…<g>
You know that the true empanadas come from Argentina. Here in Brazil, where I am living now, there is another type of tidbit that everybody eats, and is called ‘pastel’.
This pastel is a kind of empanada, made of thinner dough that is similar to the pastry dough. The dough sometimes includes alcohol (pinga – white rum) in it. This dough is rolled to a rectangular shape of 12x9 inches, take or left, folded in the middle, filled and closed by pressing the edges. You know, like a bag or letter.
The fillings are diverse, being the common one cheese, or ham and cheese or chopped meat.
The filled dough is deep fried (normally in soy oil) until clear brown and the pastel puff up like a pita bread. The alcohol in the dough let it crunchy, full of holes and smooth.
The pastel is too tasty and hot, being a perfect complement to a very cold beer (this one always present in the hands of the people).
As the empanadas, is always bitted using the hands, never fork or knives…
Would you like to try one?

Luis

[CanuckJim]

Re: Brick oven empanadas

Luis,

Sounds like what I had was a pastel, because it seemed to have been fried, it did puff up, and it was folded. I'll also try the shop across the street next time to see what the difference is between them. I didn't know that Argentina is home to the empanada, but the people in the shop were Columbian, I think. I'll get more info and pics when I'm there again. You'd definitely enjoy the market; the South American contingent is quite strong there, both in foods and ingredients, much more so than in the St. Lawrence Market on the east side of the city, though you can get blinding chorizo there.

Jim