Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes

Please forgive my one day break- a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

I made these for our Stitch & Bitch Xmas party at Linda’s tomorrow night:

Spinach Empanadas

Pastry:

• Two- 8 oz packages cream cheese, chilled
• ¾ cup butter or margarine, chilled
• 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt

Filling:

• ¼ cup finely chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled (reserve bacon fat drippings)
• one- 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained & squeezed dry
• one- 8 oz container cottage cheese (1 cup)
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions:

This dough recipe is too big to fit in my full-size Kitchen Aid, so I divided all dough ingredients in half, then combined everything back together in a large mixing bowl at the end.

1. To make pastry: In large bowl of food processor, add 1-1/4 cups flour & 1/8 tsp salt; pulse a couple of times to combine. Add one package cream cheese, chunked, and half the butter, chunked.

Pulse or process until mixture is crumb-y and starting to come together in a ball.

Turn out into a large mixing bowl, and repeat with remainder of dough ingredients. With lightly floured hands, knead mixture about 2 minutes until it comes together into a cohesive, smooth ball. Divide ball into 2, flatten and cover each tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours, or freeze for 30 minutes

2. To make filling: In medium skillet, cook onion & garlic in bacon drippings for 3 to 4 minutes or until onion is tender but not brown. Stir in crumbled bacon, the spinach, cottage cheese, pepper & nutmeg. Let the mixture cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one round of dough to 1/8” thickness. Using a 3” round cutter (or glass), cut out as many pastry circles as possible, re-rolling scraps and using second ball of dough as necessary. Place 1 scant teaspoon of the filling on each pastry circle. Do NOT overfill!! Moisten edges of the circle with the beaten egg and fold the circle in half over the filling. Pinch edges tightly closed.

5. Place the pastries on ungreased or parchment lined baking sheets. Gently seal the edges of the empanadas with the times of a fork. Brush the tops of each pastry with the beaten egg and prick a small vent in each with the fork.

6. Bake in 425 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or golden brown.

These freeze well and reheat in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes.