I can’t believe we are on post 3 out of 4 of our Puerto Rican series, courtesy of my good friend Courtney! I’ll be back later this week with another incredible no-bake dessert recipe, but for now, enjoy our second-to-last Puerto Rican installment!

One of the most common snack foods that you can find in Puerto Rico are fritura, which basically means fried food.  It is everywhere, sold out of stores, little shacks on the beach, tents on the side of the road and trucks in a plaza.  They usually sell sorullos (little cornmeal sticks filled with cheese), empanadillas (a fried dough pocket filled with some sort of meat), alcapurrias (a fried dough made of plantains and other root vegetables filled with meat) and bacalaitos (fried cod fish).  As you can see from this list, one of the favorite cooking methods of Puerto Ricans is frying, almost every typical Puerto Rican dish will either have some part of the main dish fried or a fried side dish, this makes for delicious food, but is not so great for your waist line.  So when I was thinking about making empanadillas, I looked for a baked version, since it is better for our bodies, and the thought of a big pan of hot oil kind of scares me.

Empanadillas are pretty easy to make, and they are versatile because you can make the same dough and use however many different fillings you want.  I chose to make chicken ones and sweet ones filled with white cheese and guava paste.  The recipe I found for the dough is really simple, but you can always go to the freezer section of the grocery store and buy premade dough that is already cut out into perfect little circles for you.  I know that Goya makes them and I hear they are pretty good.

The chicken recipe I made up myself with some guidance from my co-worker Denise, she is a great cook and we both love food (it is a common topic of discussion among us).  The chicken recipe uses an ingredient called sofrito, which is the base of all Puerto Rican cooking.  It is used in almost all Puerto Rican dishes and many mothers and grandmothers make their own from scratch.  It is a paste made from garlic, cilantro, onion, pepper, and ají dulce (a small sweet pepper).  You can find this in most grocery stores in the jar, which is what I used.

For an improvement note: when making these I did not roll the dough out thin enough, the fillings turned out great, but the dough on the edges was too thick, so when you make yours, make sure to roll out the dough nice and thin into a circle, cause you want to taste more of the filling than the dough.

These empanadillas are great as a snack, appetizer or a meal.  Feel free to experiment and add different fillings, be creative, and you can make yourself your own little unique delicious pocket!  ¡Buen Provecho!

Empanadillas

To make the dough:

• 3 cups flour
• tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup olive oil + some extra for coating
• 1 cup warm water

Sift all dry ingredients together and add to a bowl. Mix oil and water together and add to dry ingredients and mix until dough forms.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12-16 pieces then roll into 4 inch circles. Separate each circle with wax paper and store them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use them.

To make the chicken filling:

• 1 large chicken breast cut into small pieces
• 4 tbs adobo
• ½ onion minced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup sofrito

Coat the chicken with the adobo to season it.  Then add the chicken, onion and sofrito to a hot skillet coated with cooking spray and cook until the chicken is halfway done.  Add the garlic and continue to cook until chicken is done.  Set aside and let cool.

Cheese and Guava filling:

• Mozzarella cheese (or any other kind of cheese you like)
• Guava paste

Cut the cheese and guava paste into strips.  The amount of cheese and guava is up to you and depends on how many emapanadillas you are going to make.

To assemble:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Fill each dough circle with about 2 tbs of chicken or about 2 slices each of cheese and guava paste.  Fold the dough over the mixture so that it forms a half moon shape.   Seal the edges by pressing around the curve with a fork.  Place the empanadillas on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Brush only the chicken ones with some olive oil to give them a crispy and savory crust.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the dough is light brown and cooked through

I used to really not be an appetizer person. I generally took a strong “Don’t spoil your dinner!” stance on the appetizer vs. dive-right-into-the-meal debate. I also (let’s be honest) have a hard time pulling a whole meal together and getting it all on the table at one time: main dish, side dish, salad, etc. It is still beyond me to get all those components ready at the same time. Adding one more element just always seemed a little like overkill.

Then I had an important revelation: if I make an appetizer, then I buy myself a little more time. Nobody is grouchy while hungrily awaiting their food, and I get some wiggle room in terms of getting dinner on the table.

I’m not saying this happens every night I make dinner — ha! — but I have come to appreciate the power of putting out veggies and hummus, or whatever, when we have people over and I am still frantically cooking (this does happen quite a bit).

A couple of weekends ago we went away with some friends to their lakehouse and Emily and I made an appetizer to tie us all over before dinner. This is a SUPER easy one that we adapted from the recipe section of the Whole Foods website. Use whatever cheese you think you’d like — preferably something that melts nicely — the original recipe calls for brie, which I don’t like (!).

Baked Apple & Cheese Toasts

Adapted from WholeFoodsMarket.com

• 3 tart apples, cored and sliced into eighths (we used Pink Lady apples, my favorites)
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 (350-gram) chunk smoked Gouda, sliced into 24 pieces
• 24 baguette slices

Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss apple slices with melted butter and brown sugar. Bake apples until are tender, about 20 minutes.

Arrange Gouda evenly over the bread slices and top with the apple slices. If desired, broil 1 to 2 minutes until cheese is just melted. Serve immediately.