The Right Way To Prep Empanadas Ahead Of Time, According To A Chef

Empanadas are a perfect hand held snack or appetizer. An empanada shop or stand has a glass case full of them, but behind every batch are numerous preparation steps. If you're planning on making a batch — like this recipe for baked beef and sweet potato empanandas — prepping empanadas ahead of time is the best way to make the cooking process as smooth as possible. We have consulted Lorena Cantarovici, owner and chef at Maria Empanada, for her expert advice on the right way to prep empanadas ahead of time.

"Ideally, empanadas should be made over a couple of days," she says. "Making both the dough and the filling on the same day can be time consuming. If you are going to make your own dough, consider making the disks and stacking them on top of one another separated by a square of wax paper. Take the pile out about half an hour to 45 minutes before you start stuffing and closing them so they are pliable."

"Also make sure the filling you use is cold," she adds, "this way it does not sweat the dough as you make them." There's nothing more disappointing than soggy dough, which will happen if it heads into the deep fryer or oven sweating from a filling that's too hot. Consequently, making the filling ahead of time is just as helpful as making the dough a day or two earlier.

Another important factor for your filling is to make it juicy, but not too juicy; if the filling has too much liquid, it'll penetrate the dough, sabotaging its texture no matter how long you bake or fry it. So, making the filling ahead of time and letting it sit in the fridge for a day will develop the flavors and allow any extra liquid to collect at the bottom of the container. You can then easily drain the cold filling before adding it to the disks of dough.

Lorena Cantarovici's suggestion for making and refrigerating the empanada dough in advance does more than just save you work on the day you make the empanadas; the aging time will also improve the texture and flavor of the dough. Refrigerating allows the dry ingredients to absorb the fat, making for a more cohesive dough. Furthermore, as the dough sits in the fridge, the gluten in the flour relaxes, resulting in the flakiest, most delicate empanada shells. This same logic is behind the instructions to refrigerate this flakey pie crust ball before rolling it out.

Of course, you can skip making dough from scratch altogether and opt for pastry dough sheets instead. Goya even manufactures pre made empanada shells to save you the trouble of stamping them out. You can transfer them from the freezer to the fridge the night before so they're thawed yet cold for empanada assembly.