Sweet Empanadas

Empanadas.

Bowl of Delicious.

They're the black sheep of pastries, halfway between a calzone and a dirty milk-bar pastie. They're usually chock full of some sort of meat and veg mix and either baked or fried until golden. In this recipe I took the classic shape of an empanada and changed it into a sweet, delicate bite-sized snack using cream cheese for the pastry and fruit preserves and hazelnut chocolate for the filling.

The fun thing about this recipe is the variety of fillings you can put into the centre and reaching into a huge bowl of assorted flavours. It reminds me of biting into Clinkers at Christmas time, trying to guess which flavour you're going to discover next. For the filling you can use jam, marmalade, nutella, fruit, nuts and anything else that will fit, just make sure to seal them well, because when heated up most filling will trickle through the tiniest of gaps. When you make these empanadas you have to go all out and make a massive batch to share while they're still warm from the oven.

SWEET EMPANADAS

Makes about 50

1 cup butter, softened

175 g cream cheese

2 cup white flour, sifted

2 cup fillings

2/3 cup castor sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

cream butter + cream together, until smoothly blended. Beat in flour + shape dough into a smooth ball. Wrap in cling wrap + refrigerate for a minimum of 8 hours.

remove dough from fridge 30 mins before baking + preheat oven to 190C.

roll dough thin + cut with 7-10cm circle cookie cutter. place small spoonful of filling in centre of each, moisten edges with water, fold + press edges together. bake for 15-20 mins, then roll in sugar and cinnamon mixture.