Apple Empanadas

For Anyone who doesn't know, an Empanada is a glorious little pie pocket, filled with whatever you want to put in it. Yesterday, I wanted apples, because the only thing really better than apple pie is self-contained apple pie.

These are pretty quick and easy to make. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
For the dough you will need:
1 and 1/2 cups of brown rice flour
1/2 cup of tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 cup butter, cubed and chilled
1/4 cup of cream cheese cubed and chilled
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 large egg
1/4 cup water

Combine dry ingredients.
Work in butter cubes and cream cheese with a fork or pastry knife (or your hands, you know) until the texture becomes grainy and fluffy.
Beat together vinegar and egg. Add to dry ingredients and mix well.
Kneed with your hands and slowly add in water until dough forms and sticks together. work into a ball. wrap in wax paper and chill in fridge while you make your empanada filling. (or about 30 minutes).

For the filling, you will need:
3 medium apples (gala or machintosh work well) cored, peeled and chopped small (think pinky fingernail sized)
handful of raisins
4 tbsps sifted brown sugar
3 tbsps melted butter
2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
pinch of all spice or clove (a little goes a long way, so don't overdo!)
2 tbsp of corn starch


Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, and apples, raisins, and melted butter in another. Make sure each is mixed well.
Then combine the dry ingredients with the apples, making sure everything is evenly coated.

Now you are ready to roll out the dough. What works best for me is to divide the dough into eight parts. Lay out some wax paper, sprinkle a bit of rice flour on the paper and around your ball of dough. Put another piece of wax paper on top, and roll out. This helps it keep together well and your rolling pin from sticking. You want to roll it fairly thin, slightly thinner than you would for a pie shell. Don't worry, unlike a lot of GF doughs, this one is highly workable and nicely elastic, so you can make it pretty thin without fear of it tearing.
Once you have the dough the right thickness, you want to cut out a circle about 4 inches in diameter. (I just use the plastic lid to our coffee canister, which is a 2 lb plastic tub o Folgers. )

Then put 3 or 4 tsp. of the filling onto one side of your cut out circle. Make sure you leave a lip of dough exposed. Now fold over the other side of the circle, then fold up the lip of dough you left on the pocket. pinch down all around to seal the empanada closed. Repeat until you run out of dough. (4 inch circles should yield about 8 empanadas.) when finished, place on a greased cookie sheet.

At this point, you can fancy them up and dust the outsides with cinnamon, sugar, cinnamonsugar, honey, egg whites or butter. I kinda like em plain, because the dough is tasty and slightly salty and makes the filling pop, but they're your pie pockets, so do what ya like.

When your baking sheet is full, pop them in the oven. You will bake them for 10 or 15 minutes, then flip them over, reduce oven temp to 350, and bake for 25-30 more minutes.

Remove from oven and try your verybest to let them cool for a few minutes before you eat them. This will be a great test of will, but completely necessary to avoid blistering tongue burns. Pour yourself some ice cold milk, or a steamy mug of Folgers Coffee, and enjoy!