Pumpkin Empanadas
Pumpkin Empanadas are like a pumpkin pie in your hand. The hearty empanada dough makes these truly portable and fun to eat.
Why all these Latin style pumpkin recipes? Well, because the first pumpkins appear to come from Oaxaca, Mexico. They’re believed to have originated and cultivated in Central America over 7500 years ago. So, in my head it only makes sense to take the pumpkin back to it’s roots and make something along the lines of its original history.
Okay. Yes, I know that the empanada is originally from Spain or Portugal or both. Empanadas travelled to Latin America, mainly Argentina, where immigrants from Northern Spain landed. Initially it was a double crusted pie cut into slices. But the portability of the smaller cousin, the empanada, meant that people working could pack them into their lunch to eat at work.
They are also extremely popular as part of tapas or light meals and appetizers.
These are not those. These are pumpkin pie flavored baked empanadas. And they tasted so good! Just like a pumpkin pie that’s wrapped in rich and delicious empanada dough. It’s sort of like pie pastry but not. It has eggs in there to make it richer and stand up to either baking or frying.
I would like to experiment with air frying them. Baking is good, but I miss that extra crispy crust on the outside that comes from frying. But since we’re not a huge deep-frying family, the air fryer would be the way to go for us.
Another reason I decided to make empanada is because I had some left-over dough from the last batch I made. I made some bourbon peach empanadas for summer. And they were perfectly delicious! But there’s only two of us so I didn’t want to use all the empanadas. I store half of the batch in the freezer to use later. And, well, it’s later!
It was awesome to not have ot make another batch of the dough. It’s not difficult, but it does make quite a bit of dough and I didn’t want another batch sitting in the freezer. And it made making these pumpkin pie empanadas easy to whip up in no time! I only needed to thaw the dough, roll it out, fill, and bake!
Yes. These are a little darker than I anticipated. Yours will not be that dark. I adjusted the time in the recipe. I forgot how long and at what temperature I baked the peach empanadas. So, that’s all on me for being lazy. I should have looked it up. So, they’re a little dark but they tasted delicious!
I struggle with rolling out dough. I really do. For this round, I used the crimper I purchased for pierogi. I didn’t have the patience to deal with hand crimping them like I did last time. I was tired and really needed to get these done quickly. Honestly, I had like nothing done the week before the event. Yes, that’s all on me. I did talk about my mojo just sort of being gone in a previous post.
But when the recipe comes out delicious like these did, then it’s all worth it. They were so crispy and filled with delicious pumpkin goodness. Slightly sweet with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices in there. I don’t like them too sweet. I like to be able to taste the pumpkin there. Call me crazy!
You can easily drizzle these with caramel syrup like I did. Topping them with whipped cream or ice cream sounds divine, too. Just make sure it’s a flavor that will compliment the pumpkin filling in these pumpkin empanadas and not drown it.
Pumpkin Empanadas
Pumpkin Empanadas are like a pumpkin pie in your hand. The hearty empanada dough makes these truly portable and fun to eat.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons chilled butter
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup ice water
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- With the processor running, add the egg yolk.
- Keep the processor running and add the ice water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Combine the pumpkin puree with the sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Roll the dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into large circles.
- Place about 1 tablespoon of the pumpkin mixture in the center of the circle.
- Fold the dough over and press to seal the dough as close to the filling as possible.
- Use a fork, your hands, or a handy empanada maker to seal and create and decorative edge.
- Place the empanadas on a silpat lined baking sheet.
- Lightly beat the egg. Brush the empanadas with the egg using a pastry brush.
- Bake at 375 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until the empanadas are golden brown.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 146Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 59mgSodium 228mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 1gSugar 5gProtein 3g
Pumpkin season is here, and we are celebrating our love of pumpkin with #PumpkinWeek hosted by Terri from Love and Confections and Christie from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures. All week-long 26 bloggers will be sharing over 80 pumpkin-filled recipes for all your Autumn celebrations, including breakfasts, baked goods, savory pumpkin recipes, desserts, and drinks.
Drink Recipes
- Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Smoothies by Our Good Life
Breakfast and Baked Goods
- Spiced Pumpkin Donut Holes by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Keto Pumpkin Muffins by Keto Basic AF
Savory Recipes
- Fresh Pumpkin Pizza by Palatable Pastime
- Pumpkin Stufffed Shells by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Pumpkin Stuffing by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
Dessert Recipes
- Easy Pumpkin Pie Crescent Rolls by Blogghetti
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip by The Freshman Cook
- Pumpkin Empanadas by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Pumpkin Impossible Pie by Shockingly Delicious
That shine on those empanadas! I bet these taste amazing.
Thank you! They were delicious.
These sound amazing! Hand pies are a favorite of mine and these are so golden brown and filled with yummy fall flavors!
They’re so portable and fun, right?
This is an amazing dish. I want to lick the screen! Ha. I will be giving them a try.
Hahahaha! I hope you enjoy them!
Just when I thought I couldn’t love pumpkin more… EMPANADAS! I will be making a batch ASAP!
I had to. Pumpkins are Latin!