Ingredients

• 2 cups Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 stick of butter cold
• 1 Egg
• 3/4 - 1 cups Cold Water

• 2 lbs Ground Beef
• Adobo found in the Latino products aisle, or salt & pepper
• 1/4 cup Sofrito same as above
• 1 small envelope Sazon same as above
• 2 cloves Garlic peeled and chopped
• 1/2 Onion diced
• 1/2 green pepper diced
• 1/2 red pepper diced
• 1 small potato diced
• 1 cup Tomato Sauce

Instructions

1. Mix flour, salt, butter (slice up the stick of butter first) and egg with a food processor or mixer. Start adding water slowly until you get a nice stretchy dough consistency.
2. The dough shouldn’t be sticky, if it is, add more flour to the mix. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This step is not absolutely necessary, but it does make the dough easier to work with.

1. Season ground beef with Adobo to desired taste, add chopped garlic cloves and brown the meat in a skillet. You may also use salt and pepper instead of Adobo if you prefer. Once meat is cooked add Sofrito, Sazon, tomato sauce, onions, green peppers, red peppers and potatoes. Let it simmer until potatoes are tender.
2. Take your dough and roll it out with a rolling pin. Make sure to sprinkle flour on the surface, your rolling pin and hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Once your roll the dough out, use a cup or a round cookie cutter to cut circular shapes.
3. Place a spoonful of beef filling on the dough and fold it shut.
4. My favorite method for sealing empanadillas is to use a fork. Simply press on the edge with a fork on both sides and you’re done. You’ll want to fry each side of the empanadilla in hot oil. Simply remove when the empandilla gets a light golden color. You can also bake them, but I prefer to fry my empanadillas since it’s the authentic way to make them.
5. The dough will yield at least 2 1/2 dozen mini empanadillas. You can also make them larger if you prefer and serve them for lunch or with dinner. The filling will be more than sufficient and I actually wound up with some leftover meat that I used to add over my rice.