Thank goodness we get an extra day off this week! You know where I'll be spending it...in the kitchen :)! Especially now that I'll be working twice as much as I used to during the week. Yay! No complaints here, though, I look forward to a busier work schedule. I love the feeling of having my hands full -- especially when they're full of dough! Even though I'll be working more, I still plan on keeping up with this blog. No excuses, I promise! Later on this week, I'll post a couple of pie recipes (and even a tasty summer cake recipe) because there's always time for baking and blogging, right?! Yes. I won't even let the 95 degree weather stop me from baking; I'll sweat my way through one dessert recipe after another while the AC is off any day! I can't decide if that makes me a dedicated baker or just plain crazy... :)
On to the post! Earlier this week, Mansi from Fun and Food invited me to join in on the Monthly Mingle event. I thought it sounded like fun, especially since I'd never put together an actual appetizer before, so I told her I'd like to do it...then, earlier today, I thought I could combine the Monthly Mingle appetizer with my Traveling the World One Plate at a Time recipe. To come up with ideas, Jose and I flipped through a few of the many half-read foodie magazines stacked up near my desk. Jose came up with a great idea after reading an inspiring recipe -- why not make empanadas, little ones? So that's what we did. I wanted to make a savory version...and because my sweet tooth has a bigger mouth than I do, I couldn't ignore it's unrelenting cry for sugar, so I gave-in and made sweet empanadas too. The savory vegetarian empanadas are stuffed with a variety of hearty ingredients (like tomatoes and portabella mushrooms), while the sweet empanadas are filled with sweet potatoes and warm spices (like cinnamon and cloves).
This is how they should be stuffed, except this one is really loaded! :)
I was inspired by Chef Jim Moffat's empanada dough recipe; as for the filling -- I decided to get creative with that. You'll find the recipe for both the sweet and savory empanadas below. Please note that there was quite a bit of filling leftover from each recipe. So, tomorrow, I plan on using the savory ingredients to make omelets for breakfast...and I might just bake up something using the mashed sweet potatoes :). The spiced sweet potatoes can be eaten on their own, though, they're so good!
Further reading: BBC Good Food baking guidance.