Pineapple Empanadas
These tasty little pineapple empanadas are a breeze to make with only three ingredients in the crust and pineapple preserves for the filling! Customize with different flavors of jam and enjoy for breakfast or dessert!
Pineapple Empanadas
I believe food is better when shared (unless it's the last bite!), so I was thrilled when Better Homes & Gardens invited me to share a recipe with you. After all, I've been a fan since I first discovered the magazine on my grandma's coffee table 20-some years ago.
I picked these Sweet Empanaditas because they sounded like they would be the perfect ending to a meal of roasted pork, rice and beans. I was wrong - they are a fabulous dessert for ANY meal! I even ate them for breakfast!
These little pastries have a soft flaky crust which is my favorite part. The only sweetener is fruit preserves, which means they're not overly sweet. With the holidays coming up, these will be your new favorite dessert!
Essentially an empanada is a hand pie. They can be sweet or savory. The dough is only three ingredients and these pineapple empanadas are filled with jam so they couldn't be easier.
I chose pineapple preserves since they complement Latin cooking so well, but you can use your favorite flavor. You could even use caramel, Nutella or apple butter!
Tips and changes to Sweet Empanaditas recipe:
- Instead of rolling each pie in cinnamon-sugar, I brushed them with an egg wash before baking and sprinkled them with sanding sugar. I loved the color this added along with some sparkle.
- I mixed in a dash of cinnamon with the fruit preserves - this took the flavor from good to great!
- I made the dough ahead of time and stored it in the fridge until I was ready to bake. Terrific timesaver if you're making these for an event.
Pin these to your sweets board!
Pineapple Empanadas
These tasty little pineapple empanadas are a breeze to make with only three ingredients in the crust and pineapple preserves for the filling! Customize with different flavors of jam and enjoy for breakfast or dessert!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pineapple preserves
- Dash of cinnamon (optional)
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- Sanding sugar, for garnish
Instructions
Notes
Time does not include time needed for chilling dough.
Love the idea of it and plan to make these for this weekend, seeing the comments it seems most people are having issue with the dough.
Was there supposed to be an egg in there? In any other empanada or pie crust though egg is added to be used as a glue to keep it together, and I am a little worried that the butter and cream cheese do not have those properties.
Thank you for any insight!
No, no egg for this recipe. The dough is more like a pie crust with cream cheese to make it more pliable. Be sure not to pack the flour when measuring. I use the spoon and level method.
Attempted to make today, used cherry preserves as the store didn't carry the pineapple preserves. All but 2 fell completely apart even after cooking them longer. Perhaps using an egg with cream cheese and butter before adding flour would hold it together better? Really disappointed since I made these for my husband for Father's day. The taste is amazing though.
use unsalted butter?
I prefer unsalted, but you can use salted since there's no added salt in the dough.
Can you use refrigerated Dale sheets to make these?
Yes.
Follow up to my follow up:
I ran out of time to use all of the dough so yesterday I used the rest.
1) Sprinkled the dough circle with sugar, dusted with cinnamon and used more jam since I wanted a "juicy" filling.
2) After wetting the edges of the circle, I picked it up and loosely bent it into an "open" semi circle.
3) Then starting at the "corners" I pinched the edges together until my fingers met in the middle. Some oozed out during the pinching and some oozed out during the baking, but I decided that they not only tasted better, they really didn't look all that bad after baking. Granted, I don't really know what an "empanada" is supposed to look like since I've never had them. Gasp!
I forgot to add:
Since I didn't have any parchment paper, I used aluminum foil generously greased with butter. It SEEMED to work best when I used the non-shiny side of the foil.
Thank you, this was really helpful feedback!
I made a Mexican dish for company and wanted to make a Mexican dessert. Every other recipe I found involved deep frying. Nope. I don't do that. Tried these. The dough is sticky when warm, hard when cool. I was not home and did not have my pastry mat, plus I did not have any parchment paper. After experimenting, this is what I found worked:
1) Divided the dough into fourths.
2) Let it warm for just a FEW minutes.
3) Rolled out, on generously floured freezer paper.
4) Cut my circles and pulled up the extra right away and put it right back into the fridge.
5) Spooned the jam half way from the edge to the center. (Used peach and cherry since that is what I had on hand.)
6) Wet the edges and then folded it over from the side with the jam. This seemed to prevent oozing out.
7) Pressed with my fingers since by now the dough was warm and the fork tines seemed to stick to the dough.
8) Brushed with egg mixed with milk as that gives a more golden color. Dusted generously with regular sugar as I did not have sanding sugar.
9) I had to bake for about 15 minutes, but that could have been the oven.
My guests said they liked them and were impressed with these delicate little cookies I made. I think I will try adding the cinnamon and maybe adding sugar to the dough or dusting the inside with sugar.
Thank you a great little dessert to try. (Did I mention I'm not really a baker so if *I* can make these, anyone can make these.)
Store them in freezer?
I haven't frozen these particular ones but it should be fine!
Can these be made ahead of time and stored.
Yes, they will keep for a few days in an airtight container.
They we’re pretty good but my dough kept shrinking when cutting it out. How can I stop it from shrinking?
I'm sorry to hear that! The dough may have been a little over-mixed. Things that can help shrinking are to let the dough rest. And when rolling it out lift it off the counter so it can shrink, then roll again, repeat. Hope that helps!
Made empanadas is the dough supposed to be sticky ? How long am I supposed to mix flour with the rest ?
The flour is mixed just until incorporated. Mixing too long makes it tough. The dough will be a bit tacky and it needs to chill and firm up in the fridge before rolling it out. It's really soft at room temp.
Made pineapple empanadas so yummmmmm olive the recipe thank you