Gaby Makes Empanadas

[exhaling]

It's just like I love to talk

and I have a chance of people watching me talking

so why shouldn't I?

[upbeat music]

All right, hi, so today,

we're going to be making empanadas one more time.

This time I'm gonna show you

how to make homemade dough that you can fry.

All right, step one,

you're gonna mix all the liquids in a bowl,

large enough to hold all the dough together.

So I'm gonna start with the water.

And then I'm gonna add the butter that is already melted.

So if you don't have any butter

and you want to make this vegan-friendly,

you can definitely use the same amount of olive oil.

Okay, so then I'm gonna add the salt altogether

and it's measured.

And then the vinegar.

I love apple cider vinegar.

I think it's the best vinegar.

I use it for my salads, I use it for everything.

Mix it a little bit.

And then, I'm gonna start adding the flour gradually.

Maybe we get another spoon or with your hands.

Some recipes call for mixing the flour

with the dry ingredients first.

In this case, will be the salt,

and then adding the water gradually.

That works too.

I like this method better.

I feel you have a little bit more of control.

It's gonna look weird in the beginning,

but just bear with me.

The reason why I'm adding the flour in a small addition

is because you don't want to have a big lump of flour

stuck in the middle.

This will allow you to break all the clumps in the flour.

And that's why actually,

number one reason why I sift the flour is because you know,

you might have the flour in a container,

sitting at home for a while,

and sometimes you get big chunks, right chunks in there.

So sifting it will prevent

any of those pieces getting in here.

It's getting smooth already, can see here.

We kind of start working the gluten,

we want to work the gluten but not too much

to prevent it from being hard.

All right, so it's getting there.

So I'm gonna add the rest of the flour.

Right, number one reason why I developed this recipe is

because I wanted to be nice

with everybody who asks for it.

But that doesn't mean that we're gonna be making

every single thing.

Oh, I just mix this with a wooden spoon

but you can actually and totally invite your own children

in the mixture here, and do this by hand.

Number one reason why people don't make the empanada dough

at home in Argentina, I think,

it's because you do make a big mess

and you have to have enough space on your counter.

And you need to have a cleanup after.

We need to knead it for about two minutes,

I think the recipe calls.

And if you feel like it's getting a little wet,

just put a little more flour.

Ah!

All right, cut! [laughing]

[man laughing]

So what you wanna do is push and get back.

Yeah, this is a fricking workout.

And it can be made up two days ahead of time.

I made it and I had it in my fridge for three days

and it was, who's my lucky charm?

Oh, my lucky charm!

Hello, Gabriela!

[Gaby] Oh look, you never learn this.

Oh, my God, that panda bear shirt, it's too--

The what? Your shirt.

Oh, the panda bear?

It's too cute.

What am I an expert at?

Empanada dough?

Yes. Really?

We're gonna fry them.

Oh, your fried ones.

[Gaby] Yes, are you gonna be around here

for a little longer? [whistling]

You bet if you're making fried empanadas.

And it's a really special--

What's the filling?

Ham, cheese, and onions.

Ham, cheese, and onions,

oh, meow. Yes.

[meows] It's been two minutes, oh wow!

Touch it, nice.

[man talking in background] Yeah, quit yapping,

[Gaby] Look.

[Brad] What's the catch?

It has to be really soft to the touch.

I like to keep it like this, like a little rectangle,

but not so little.

It's heavy though.

So, to the fridge.

All right, so thanks to the magic of the test kitchen,

we already have a dough that has been chilling.

Chilling [laughing].

So I have another sheet pan with parchment paper.

The reason why is because this dough

has to be really cold when you're working.

So, I'm gonna do

one,

two, three, and then in the middle.

One.

This guy's gonna be small.

I'm just gonna make it a little skinnier.

It's so nice, look at that.

And I know the recipe says it makes 40.

And I'm cutting it into six,

and I'm asking you to make six rounds.

So, six times six is not 40.

All right, so while you're working with one piece,

you want the rest of your dough

to be covered with some plastic to avoid any dryness.

And the other thing I wanna recommend

when you do this recipe

is to make sure you have room in your refrigerator.

So before you start,

before you even buy your ingredients,

make sure you have some sort of room in your fridge

on a shelf that is not uneven

to put this sheet pan in and out

'cause you're gonna be working in and out a bunch of times.

All right, good.

Gonna start rolling.

Rolling pins.

For this recipe, you're gonna need a rolling pin.

Preference of rolling pins,

I know this is the most popular,

and the one most people will go and buy.

The one I like to use, and that's because I am old,

and I have old hands.

And it really hurts my hands to make the pressure.

Here, if you see you're using these parts.

So,

I figured that with this,

you just hold it and the pin does the work for you.

I mean, you still have to bring pressure

and work your arms a little bit.

So you start with one of the pieces.

You are aiming to have a rectangle

of about 14 inches long and 10 inches wide.

And like I said, this dough is really resilient,

so don't be afraid, like I am sometimes,

to put a little pressure because it's dough.

If it doesn't some work,

you can roll it back again and start all over.

[mumbles] the ice, see, still really cold,

and that's very important

to work with your dough when it's still cold.

When you're frying dough, when you're frying anything,

it's kind of like common sense

like you shouldn't introduce anything

that has any type of liquid, like water,

inside the hot oil because that's gonna create,

what I call, explosions.

It's gonna start bubbly and it's gonna splatter you.

And you might end up with oil on your face.

So when you have something that has filling inside,

and part of it is liquid,

if you think about it, cheese,

it's milk and milk is a type of liquid,

you have to be very,

very attentive

to they way you're sealing it.

Yes,

yes,

yes.

The recipe calls for four and a half inch round cutter.

This is almost four and a half.

As soon as you cut them,

you wanna keep the dough chilled

so I'm gonna put them straight on a sheet pan.

That's where we're gonna be doing the filling too.

If you have a smaller cutter,

you can make smaller rounds

that will end up being smaller empanadas.

So you will have to put less amount of filling.

And you will have to fry a lot longer.

But sometimes it's kind of cute

to have little, tiny empanadas

passed around as hors d'oevres.

So I'm gonna put these back in the fridge.

That's what I was saying,

you need to have space in your refrigerator.

And this extra dough, don't get rid of it.

Save it.

I don't wanna work it alone.

It's just like,

cover it with a little bit of plastic,

and you can roll it again later

and have some more empanadas.

Yeah, so for this empanada dough,

you can use any kind of filling that you like.

You know, you can make it any way you want.

You can even make, the dough,

it doesn't have a lot of salt in it

so you can use it also for sweet empanadas

with a little bit of guava.

Oh, that's something that I should try.

I have two onions that have been diced,

a small dice, and cooked for about five minutes,

until it get a little bit of color.

And season with salt and pepper and a little bit of oregano.

So then I got some mozzarella cheese.

The type of mozzarella cheese I got,

it's the low moisture one.

But you can use any other mozzarella

but not

fresh, because the fresh mozzarella basically,

will melt faster,

and it will turn your filling into a very watery filling.

So I'm gonna cut it in cubes of about half an inch.

When I teach classes for children,

this is one of the first things I show them

because even though these amazing cutting boards from OXO

have these little tiny legs

that are supposed to be anti-sliding, you'd little move,

is always a good rule of thumb

to put a wet paper towel under

so it won't slide anymore.

All right, cheese.

In order to prevent the cheese from melting excessively

to the point that it turns into water,

I recommend using a little bit of cornstarch or flour.

All right, so you want to coat it nicely with cornstarch.

I'm gonna add a little more.

Ham, so this is

cooked ham.

I like to use this kind of like cheaper version of ham.

I mean, if you wanna use prosciutto on

and you can afford it,

and you wanna use prosciutto inside your empanada,

by all means, do whatever you want.

It's your empanada.

And you wanna cut it in sort of like a square

or long rectangular pieces now and then go again,

kind of roughly chopping it.

So what I'm gonna do now is mix the ham with the onions.

While you're doing this,

I mean if you're going to freeze your empanadas

and fry them the same day,

you should start heating up your oil.

Luckily here, I have Roland to help me for everything.

All right there.

Nicey, nicey.

All right, yeah.

So the reason why I'm putting onion

in the ham and cheese empanada,

it's because I wanted to make

an end flavor

that is gonna be pretty similar to a type of pizza

we have in Buenos Aires that is called fugazetta.

Fugazetta is cheese and cooked onions

with a little bit of oregano.

And when you combine onions with oregano,

I don't know exactly what the chemical reaction is,

but that smell, the flavor

combined with a nice piece of melted mozzarella

reminds me so much of that pizza.

So that's what I'm trying to bring up here.

To build them up, you have the rounds that we just cut.

I chilled them for a few minutes.

The colder they are,

I wish that you can touch them

because they're simply cold.

The colder they are, the more malleable.

So it calls for one tablespoon.

And because we're working in the test kitchen,

we're obsessed with measuring things,

timing things, and writing exact things.

But you know, if you see that the amount

that you put in it's excessive for the size of your round,

just put a little less because remember

you're gonna have to fold these in two and seal them.

Also, something I noticed when I was developing the recipe,

is that

it tends to shrink,

the dough tends to shrink a little bit.

So you will need water in a little bowl

and when you work filling the empanadas,

is another good rule of thumb or idea that I have

is to have a towel handy

because your fingers are gonna get wet.

And after you put half of the water around,

you want to kind of like dry them a little bit

to keep continuing.

So I'm missing the cheese, another cheese.

So it calls for one piece of cheese.

The reason why I'm crumbling them with my hands

is to allow for the empanada to have a better shape

when you close it.

Using your fingers,

you're gonna wet half way around of the disk or round.

And you're gonna grab the dry side and fold it over,

and using your fingers, you're gonna seal.

So I'm sealing these and before I do the crimping,

or repulgue,

I'm gonna put them back in the fridge

and I wanna show you why.

It's because this guy's kind of getting limpy and--

[Brad] Well, droopy?

Yeah, droopy.

I want it to be cold when I'm working on them.

That's the reason why I'm drying my fingers

'cause when you do this, you don't wanna have wet hands.

All right, I'm gonna put them in the fridge

for a few minutes,

and then do the crimping the way I know it.

Thank you.

So, repulgue

or crimping.

And the goal here is to have the empanada really seal.

You can totally use a fork.

So I start on the top.

There are different ways of sealing them

or you do in repulgue.

Ta-da, kind of like a tiny empanada.

Nuchas, hi Ariel,

Ariel Barbouth is the owner of Nuchas Empanadas.

There are a few places in the city.

And I actually worked for him many, many years ago

developing some flavors.

So while you're doing this,

make sure your oil is on medium to high heat,

and if you have a thermometer, use it.

I recommend using a deep-fry thermometer

because you need to keep the temperature at a steady 350.

And you're gonna have to constantly adjust the temperature

in each batch to keep it always at the same level.

Every time you introduce an empanada in the oil,

the oil temperature is gonna go down

and it's gonna get colder.

So for the next batch when you take them out,

just make sure that it's always at the same level.

So I'm finished crimping them or making the repulgue.

So, ideally you need to chill these for another 20 minutes.

They are a little moist.

I'm just gonna put a little bit of flour on there

just to absorb the extra moisture they might have.

So your oil is at 350.

You need a thermometer like I said before.

So you will have another sheet tray

with a cooling rack set into.

And I took these.

I'm only gonna use one.

So our oil is ready, I'm using vegetable oil.

Olive oil doesn't have the same smoking point.

So, ideally use canola, vegetable.

So here we go, one.

You don't want to overcrowd.

So you're gonna cook it for about,

I think it's about five minutes.

You got to turn them around often.

It's getting nice and fluffy.

These are hot so don't touch them.

You see the empanadas right now

are getting really soft 'cause it's hot in here.

So if you feel like they're soft,

just chill them back again.

[Man] Freezer or the refrigerator?

No, refrigerator.

Freezer will add more moisture and we don't want that.

Don't leave the kitchen.

Be near the refrigerator and the stove

'cause you're still frying.

All right, my work is done.

Oh, they're hot.

All right, just give it a couple of minutes

before you eat them.

Are you hungry?

Oh, looking nice, Gaby.

I know.

I know, right.

[Matt talking in distance]

[Brad] We already got it.

[Gaby] Wait, I gotta--

Come on now. All right.

Pick me a good one.

[Gaby] Guys, please.

Out here touching--

I don't wanna be touching your food here.

Brad is like, Let me touch, touch, touch.

[Matt] Come on, get over it.

Handsy, thank you, you guys are all hungry.

I'm so happy right now.

I don't wish it,

but you want to be hungover when you eat these.

I could eat a ton of these. Mm-hmm.

Oh, we could arrange that.

Sure can.

Could I have another one, it's delish.

I like that it's all on the outside

and then when you bite it, it sandwiches together.

So good, Gaby.

It's not too oily, it's not too greasy,

just right, you know.

[Gaby] Good.

[Jesse] I'm gonna say I love it.

[Brad] Me too.

Yup. I'm super happy.

And I hope everybody goes home and makes this at home.

[Brad] Yeah!

Bon appetit.

[Matt] I have something

for you Gaby. Oh.

I have something for you.

So, remember from the last empanadas video,

you had the spoon and fork earrings.

My mother who is Gaby's biggest fan

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

sent her spoon earrings

that she got. Oh, my God!

Wait, I gotta wash my hands, hold on.

No way. Yeah.

Wait. Oh, your mom, Matthew!

My mother loves Gaby.

Gaby gave my mother a nice sponge, which is a great gift.

Oh-- It goes a long way

with Mom, doesn't he? That's correct, yes.

And then, so little mother, It's the little things

that matter.

my mother sent you these. Oh, my God,

these are the cutest things. Right.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

'Cause you need the fork and spoon

with the fork and the other empanada, their empanada video.

Oh, full circle, Gaby,

Huh. see.

Thank you so much. Put it out there,

it comes back.

This hug is for your mom.

Aw, I'll give it to her for you.

Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Mom.

Oh, my God, I can't wait to wear them.

They're amazing.

Home run, Gaby. Thank you so much.