International Potluck with the Friendsies

My friends and I like to get together every year to celebrate Thanksgiving together. This year, instead of traditional Thanksgiving food, we decided to spice things up with food from our own cultural backgrounds. We had green chicken enchiladas, pizza, fried rice, pancit, spam masubi, pasta casserole, pasta salad, smore cookies, pumpkin pie, and empanadas!!! We finished the night with some drinks upstairs ;) It was a fun night!  
 Some photos from the night:
 
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how to make apple cinnamon empanadas

Empanadas were my absolute favorite thing about living in South America.  I knew that I would have to try to make them when I returned home and I finally got around to it!!Although I have only tasted savory empanadas (ham & cheese or marinated chicken or potatoes & corn), I was excited to try to make sweet empanadas, which I think are more popular in Mexico. 
They were absolutely delicious, and, although time-consuming, super easy. I will definitely be making these again. P.S. my nana (grandma) loved these and asked me to write the recipe down for her (en español)! So that is the Mexican stamp of approval.
   
Ingredients 
Pastry: 1 cup butter, chilled 8 ounces cream cheese, chilled 2 1/3 cups flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 
Filling: 2 tablespoons butter 4-5 firm green apples 1/2 cup sugar 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons corn starch Pinch of salt (to taste) 3 tablespoons dulce de leche 1 egg yolk Sugar for sprinkling 
Preparation 
1. Make the pastry dough: Add the flour, salt and sugar to the bowl of a food processor and pulse briefly.  2. Add the butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pieces and the cream cheese (also cut into pieces) to the bowl and pulse several times, just until mixture starts to come together. Add the vanilla and pulse twice more briefly. 3. Turn dough mixture out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Bring dough together into a disk, wrap with plastic, and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. 4. Make the filling: Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small cubes. Add apples to a saucepan with the butter, sugar, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. 5. Stir apples over medium heat, cooking them until they are just tender. In a small bowl, mix a tablespoon or two of water into the corn starch until smooth. Add cornstarch mixture to the apples and cook, stirring, until mixture starts to thicken.6. Remove apples from heat and stir in the optional dulce de leche until well mixed. 7. Chill apple mixture for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. 8. Shape empanadas: Roll out dough (in 2 or 3 batches)on floured surface to about 1/4-1/8 inch thickness. Cut circles of dough about 5-6 inches in diameter. 9. Wet the edge of a dough circle slightly, all around the perimeter. Place 1 scant tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough. Fold the circle in half, enclosing the filling, and pinch the edges together firmly to seal, flattening and extending them slightly as you pinch them. Fold and crimp the flattened edge over itself decoratively. (see how to fill and shape empanadas. Repeat with remaining empanadas.  10. Chill empanadas for about an hour for best results (or 15 minutes in the freezer). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix egg yolk with a little bit of water and brush over empanadas. Sprinkle empanadas with sugar. 11. Bake empanadas until puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes. 
 Soooo yummy. Please make these. Recipe courtesy of About.com
The week before I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (best cinnamon rolls you will ever taste). And then, the same day that I made the empanadas, I also made a pumpkin cheesecake and oatmeal-cranberry-white chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were much better the first time I made them (a long time ago) because I used craisins, and not dried cranberries. They were still good, but the dried cranberries kind of threw off the taste.So if you make them, use craisins :) 


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