Empanadas de las Monjas (Turnovers from the Nunnery)

Empanadas de las Monjas (Turnovers from the Nunnery)

 

I know you’re probably questioning the title, but honestly this recipe was given to my Cousin Gabby, who then gave it to my Tia Conchia, who originally got it from a Nun.

 

Growing up, we loved to stop by the Nunnery on our way to visiting our Grandparents in a small town in Texcate Mexico. The Nuns would make and sell these AMAZING little turnovers to make money for the church. They were light, sweet and flaky, the perfect little treat for us girls. Anywise, over the years I have thought often of these little pastries so I was pleasantly surprised when my Aunt came to visit this weekend and had the recipe with her! So this weekend, she shared the recipe with me. There were a few things about the recipe that didn’t make sense to me, so I made a few modifications. After testing out the new recipe, my Aunt was shocked how much better they tasted. The end result was these perfect little pastries filled with sweet filling and an amazing turnover crust!

 

I hope you give this recipe a try. They are definitely worth your time!

 

Empanadas de las Monjas

Makes 60-65 mini turnovers

 

Ingredients:

Turnover

1 ½ cups All- purpose Vegetable Shorting

1 cup unsalted butter

7 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1- 12oz bottle of beer ((I used New Castle) (no idea what the nuns were doing with beer!)

½ cup half and half ( not in dough, but used to seal the pastries)

 

 

Filling (homemade filling) double recipe if your only making blueberry ones

2 cups frozen blueberries (thawed)

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon lemon juice

2 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons water

and

1 jar of fruit preserve (I used strawberry, do not use Jelly)

 

Or you can just use 2 jars of your favorite preserve)

 

Topping:

1 can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

½ cup Turbinado Sugar (or raw sugar would work)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

Directions:

 

Make the dough:

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

2. Cream the shortening and butter together using a the paddle attachment.

 

3. Add flour and beer to the shortening mixture in three parts, until mixture is a nice, thick dough.

 

 

4. Switch the mixing attachment to dough hook. Mix 2 minutes.

 

5. Put dough in a bowl, and hand knead for about 1 minute.

 

6. Taking pieces of dough, make into 1 inch balls and set on a cookie tray lined with wax paper.

 

7. Once you done making all the balls, set to rest for 1 hour.

 

While dough is resting make the homemade filling:

8. In a medium saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice. Cook over medium heat.

 

9. Mix the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and set aside.

10. Once the blueberries start to boil, stir in the cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

(best result, make the jam the day before)

 

Assemble the tarts:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees:

 

11. After the dough balls have been resting for an hour, take a tortilla press and press each ball into 4” circle (if you do not have a tortilla press, use two pieces of wax paper and a rolling pin)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Add 1 teaspoon of filling to the center of disk.

 

 

13. Using your finger tip, dip in half and half mil and brush the edges of the disk.

14. Fold each circle in half over the filling. Use your finger tip to press the edges gently to seal.

 

 

 

 

 

15. Place on cookie tray lined with Parchment paper.

16. Crimp each tart with the tines of a fork. 

 

17. Brush each tart with the sweetened condensed milk and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.

 

 

18. Bake for 23-26 minutes.  Tops will be light golden brown.

 

19. Cool for 15 minutes, ENJOY!

 

 

 

Homemade Apple "Pop Tarts" with Cinnamon Glaze (and how I conquered my fear of homemade crust)

Sometimes in life when you are afraid to do something you just have to dive in head first and do it. That's just what I did with this recipe. I very seldom make homemade crust (heavy emphasis on the word seldom). I haven't found a recipe I love and I hate to waste precious ingredients (butter is like gold to me) so I usually stick with store bought crust (gasp!). This time I knew I wanted the crust to be the star so I decided to dive in and give homemade crust another try. I have to say that I was so surprised and impressed by the results. This crust recipe is so buttery, so flaky and so  amazingly good it can rival puff pastry when it comes to flakiness. I'm so proud of myself for finally conquering my fear of pie crust!

If you would like to simplify the recipe and skip making your own dough, it would also be delicious using frozen puff pastry or refrigerated ready made pie crust, but I highly recommend the homemade crust if you have the time. It's definitely worth it!

Homemade Apple "Pop Tarts" with Cinnamon Glaze
Makes 8 servings (or 8 pop tarts)

Ingredients

Pastry
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons cold milk

Filling
2 large granny smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Cinnamon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Egg Wash
1 egg lightly beaten

Instructions:

To make the dough

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar and salt by mixing for a few seconds.

Scatter the butter over the top and mix at low speed just until the mixture holds together when you squeeze a clump of it in your hand. This took exactly 1 1/2 minutes on my mixer. You should still see large lumps of butter.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Add to the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until the dough comes together. It should still look shaggy and messy and not cohesive.

Dump the dough out onto an unfloured surface and shape it into a tight mound. Using the heel of your hand start at the top of the dough (either the far right or far left) and smear it down towards you. Repeat the process until the entire mound of dough has been smeared. You should see streaks of butter throughout the dough. These streaks will make your pastry flaky!

Using a bench scraper or thin spatula, scrape up the dough and place it on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap, form it into a disk (I made mine rectangular shape since that's the shape you will ultimately be rolling it into). Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 4 hours or up to 4 days. As a time saver, I made my crust the night before & then assembled/baked the pop tarts in the morning.

Prepare the filling

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the apples and stir until the apples just begin to soften (approx 2 minutes). Add the brown sugar and continue to cook stirring constantly until the sugar is melted and the apples are softened (approx 3 minutes). Remove from heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

To the cooked apples, add the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and egg. Stir gently with a rubber spatula to combine. Make sure the mixture is cooled completely before using.

Prepare the glaze

In a small bowl combine the powdered sugar, milk and cinnamon. If glaze is too runny, add a little more powdered sugar and vice versa.


To assemble

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut in half. Place one half back in the refrigerator.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 24"x11". Cut the dough into 8 equal rectangles.

Brush four of the rectangles with the egg wash. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the apple filling into the center of the egg washed rectangles. Place the other rectangles on top and crimp with a fork.

Remove the second half of the dough from the fridge, repeat the above process with the remaining dough.

Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 35-40 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

Allow to cool 30 minutes, then brush with the cinnamon glaze. Enjoy!

Keep leftovers stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Source: Adapted from Buns in my Oven