Empanada Dough (Puerto Rican-Style)

Empanada dough discs stacked in front of a wooden rolling pin and white bowl.

Empanada Dough (Puerto Rican-Style)

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert, Entree, Hearth, lunch

Cuisine: Afro-Caribbean, Puerto Rican/Hispanic

Keyword: dough, empanadas, empanadillas, pastelillos

Prep Time: 25

Resting the Dough: 30

Total Time: 55

Servings: 2-ounce discs

Calories: 295kcal

Author: Marta Rivera

Puerto Rican-style Empanada Dough is a 5-ingredient recipe that produces a flaky pastry shell to make recipes like empanadillas, pastelillos, and empanadas.

Print Recipe

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

rolling pin
tortilla press not required, but helpful
wax paper

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt or less to taste
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/2 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
1 cup ice water plus more if needed
1 large egg beaten

Instructions

Mix the Empanada Dough

Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and kosher salt to a large mixing bowl.
Use your hand or a whisk to combine the dry ingredients.
Add the lard to a bowl and use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut the fat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal.
Combine the beaten egg and the ice water in a separate bowl or pitcher. Add the liquid ingredients to the mixing bowl.
Use your hands to knead the mixture until it comes together in a scraggly dough.
After mixing, you can add a tablespoon or two (15-30 milliliters) of water to bring a very dry dough together, but avoid adding too much water since the dough will continue to hydrate as it rests.

Rest the Empanada Dough, Then Form It

Form the dough into a disc and wrap it in plastic or put it into a food storage bag.
Refrigerate the dough for 20-30 minutes.
Make any fillings you plan to stuff your empanadas while resting the empanada dough.
Use a bench scraper to divide the dough equally into 12 pieces.
Each piece will be about 2.2 ounces or 62 grams.
Wrap the top and bottom plates of a tortilla press in a layer of plastic wrap.
Use a cupped hand to form the dough into balls, then press the ball into a circle in the tortilla press.
Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough the rest of the way until it's 6-inches.
You can also roll the ball of empanada dough into a 6-inch circle using only a wooden rolling pin.
As you roll out each disc of empanada dough, lay a 7-inch square of wax paper on top to separate it from the next disc of dough.
Wrap the stack of empanada dough in plastic wrap or into a freezer storage bag.

Use or Freeze the Empanada Dough

The empanada dough is ready to use now, but it's helpful to rest the dough for another 10-15 minutes.
Fill this empanada dough with room temperature or cold meat, poultry, seafood, legumes, or fruit fillings.
See "Storage Instructions" in the Notes below for tips on how to freeze this empanada dough.

Notes

Swaps and Substitutions:

To make gluten-free empanada dough, replace the all-purpose flour in this recipe with Gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour.
You can decrease the kosher salt in this recipe to 1 teaspoon (6 grams).
You can replace the lard in this empanada dough with vegetable shortening if you abstain from pork.
Avoid using butter to make empanada dough since it's temperamental and makes the dough hard to work with. You can use a butter-flavored shortening if you want a butter flavor.
Begin with 1 cup (240 grams) of ice water. Add more water if the dough mixture is crumbly and not holding together.
In a pinch, parchment paper, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil can be used to separate the empanada dough, but because they're not non-stick, they can be cumbersome.

Tips and Techniques:

The tortilla press method gives you a headstart forming a perfectly-shaped empanada disc.
Roll the circles out slightly just before filling them, focusing the pressure of the rolling pin on the outer edges. Try not to roll the center of your empanada discs too thin. The thinner the middle is, the more it will break when you fry it.
Keep the discs of empanada dough covered as you work to keep them from drying out.
Fill the empanada dough circles with room-temperature or cold filling to keep the fat in the dough from melting and becoming gummy.
If you find the dough sticking to the countertop as you roll it out, lightly dust your pin and countertop with all-purpose flour.
If the dough circles shrink back on you as you roll, cover it and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
You can fill empanada shells with any number of fillings, so think creatively.
The dough is easier to work with when it's rested and chilled.

Storage Instructions:

You can refrigerate the empanada dough after forming it into circles for 3-4 days.
It's best to store empanada dough in the refrigerator until you use it. The longer the empanada dough is refrigerated, the greyer it will become due to oxidization. It's still fine for 1-2 more days, but the appearance will be off.
If you don't use the empanada dough within 4 days of making it, freeze it to maintain its flavor.
Freezing the empanada dough after you form it into circles is the best way to store it.
Be sure to wrap it well to keep it from oxidizing, I also put it in a storage bag, and freeze the dough for up to 6 months.

Nutrition