Little Pies Empadinhas Food

EMPADINHAS (BRAZILIAN SHRIMP PIES)

Steps:

• Make the dough.
• Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.
• Place the butter, shortening, eggs, salt, and 1 cup water in the well.
• Using one hand to mix, squeeze these ingredients through your fingers to make a paste.
• Gradually work in the flour, squeezing the dough between your fingers to mix it.
• Add water as necessary: the dough should be quite soft.
• Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
• Prepare the filling.
• Peel and devein the shrimp (my favorite yucky part...).
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
• Sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until soft but not brown.
• Add the shrimp, bay leaf, tomato paste, salt, and pepper, plus water to cover.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked.
• Strain the shrimp, reserving the broth.
• Finely chop the shrimp by hand or in the food processor.
• Stir in the flour, peas, and olives.
• Stir in 3-4 tablespoons of the reserved broth: the filling should be moist but not runny.
• Add enough cayenne to give the shrimp mixture a little bite.
• Pinch off cherry-sized pieces of dough and use them to line the tartlet molds.
• Push the dough in with your thumb.
• The dough should just reach over the top of the mold.
• Place a spoonful of filling in each crust.
• Roll out the remaining dough and cut out tops for the empadinhas.
• Try to capture an air bubble when you place the top over the filling: this is what makes the pie light.
• Seal the tartlets by pinching together the top and bottom crust.
• Note: the empadinhas can be prepared ahead to this stage and frozen.
• Preheat the oven to 375° F.
• Brush the tops of the empadinhas with egg glaze.
• Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Unmold and serve.
• If you're lazy like me, try this big pie version, called empadão: make the filling and use Pillsbury pie crusts, one for the bottom and one for the top.
• Fantastic dinner stuff!
• To make chicken empadinhas-------------.
• Cook the chicken and prepare the broth.
• Place the chicken in a small saucepan with the garlic, onion, bay leaf and water to cover.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and gently simmer for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
• Drain the chicken, reserving the broth.
• When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and finely shred the meat.
• Discard the onion, garlic, and bay leaf.
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
• Sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until soft but not brown.
• Add the chicken, bay leaf, tomato paste, salt, and pepper, plus water to cover.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Procede as in step 3 above, stirring in the flour, peas, and olives.
• And so on.

MIXED MINI PIES

Steps:

• For the pie crusts: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with baking spray.
• Unroll the pie crusts on a clean surface. Cut 6 circles from each crust (12 total) with a 3 1/2-inch plain-edged round cutter. Press a circle of dough into each of the 12 cups of the muffin pan, lightly pressing the dough up the sides (they will not reach the tops of the cups). These will be your pie crusts.
• Poke the bottom of 4 of the pie crusts with a fork and place cupcake liners into the poked crust cups only. Fill each liner with 2 tablespoons uncooked rice. Refrigerate the pan while you prepare the fillings.
• For the crumble topping: Mix together the flour, oats and brown sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the melted butter until well combined. Set aside until ready to use.
• For the fillings: Begin filling the dough cups. (The 4 cups with the cupcake liners filled with uncooked rice will remain that way during the bake and will be filled after the bake.) Mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt in a small bowl until well combined. Divide the cream cheese mixture between 2 of the empty dough cups. Divide the cherry pie filling between 2 of the remaining empty dough cups. Divide the blueberry pie filling between 2 of the remaining empty dough cups. Divide the grape jam between the remaining 2 empty dough cups.
• Mix half of the crumble topping with the lemon zest in a bowl. Divide the mixture over the top of the 2 pie dough cups filled with the blueberry pie filling to make blueberry lemon crumble pies. Mix the remaining crumble topping with the crushed peanuts in a bowl. Divide the mixture over the top of the 2 pie dough cups filled with the grape jam.
• Bake the pies: Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the crumbs on the 4 crumb-topped pies are golden, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
• Finish the pies: Remove the cupcake liners filled with rice from the 4 baked and unfilled crusts.
• For the strawberry cream pies: Toss the diced strawberries with the granulated sugar and a splash of vanilla in a small bowl. Divide the mixture between the 2 pies filled with the cream cheese mixture. Drizzle the pies with the caramel sauce.
• For the cherry pies: Divide the toasted almonds over the 2 pies filled with the cherry filling. Microwave the white chocolate and coconut oil together in a microwave-safe bowl for 15 seconds or until warm. Stir well, then drizzle evenly over the 2 pies. Top the center of each pie with a bit of whipped cream.
• For the PB and J pies: Microwave the peanut butter and coconut oil together in a microwave-safe bowl for 15 seconds or until warm. Stir well, then drizzle evenly over the 2 pies filled with the grape jam and peanut-crumble topping.
• For the lemon raspberry pies: Divide the lemon curd between 2 of the empty baked pie crusts. Top each pie with 3 raspberries. Dust each pie with a bit of powdered sugar and finish with a mint leaf.
• For the s'mores pies: Divide the hazelnut spread between the last 2 empty baked pie crusts. Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter together in a small bowl. Sprinkle half of the mixture over each pie. Cut the marshmallow in half crosswise. Top each pie with one half of the marshmallow. Using a kitchen blowtorch (brulee torch), toast each piece of marshmallow to the desired level of toasted-ness.
• Transfer the pies to a cake stand or platter and enjoy!

HEARTS OF PALM HAND PIES (EMPADINHAS)

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, work it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
• Add the egg and egg yolk and mix with your hands until the dough comes together. Do not overwork the dough as we do not want to develop gluten. If needed, you can add a little bit of cold water, about a teaspoon at a time.
• Wrap your dough in plastic and refrigerate for 40 minutes.
• Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until softened and fragrant, about 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes and cook until they soften, 2-3 minutes.
• Add the hearts of palm and olives and mix to combine.
• Stir in the flour, cooking for about a minute to get rid of the raw flour taste. Then, add the milk and cream cheese, stirring until the cream cheese melts and the mixture is thick and creamy, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the chopped parsley and reserve until cooled to room temperature so you can assemble the hand pies.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Using your hands, cut a small portion of the dough (about 2 tablespoons) and press it into the bottom of an egg tart mold, making sure there is a little extra hanging off the edges.
• Using a spoon, top the bottom crust with as much filling as you can fit. I pile it up high as I like my empadinhas very plump.
• Grab another portion of dough and press it into a disk. Place the disk on top of the assembled pie, pinching to seal edges together. You can then run your fingers across the circumference of the mold to "cut" the excess dough.
• Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, forming about 10 small hand pies. Place them on a baking sheet.
• Brush the pies with egg wash and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

BRAZILIAN EMPADINHAS

Steps:

• DOUGH Cut butter into salt and flour.
• Stir in rest of the ingredients and knead to combine or just process everything until it forms a ball.
• Let rest covered 1 hour Make balls the size of a walnut, from 2/3 of the dough and line small muffin tins with the dough.
• Place 2 tsp. of the cold filling into the lined tins.
• Make small balls with the rest of the dough.
• Flatten them to make lids for the mini pies.
• Brush tops with egg yolk Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.
• SHRIMP FILLING Clean and devein shrimp, saving heads and shells.
• Make a broth with the shells and heads and 2 cups water.
• Cook 1 hour, uncovered over low heat. Strain broth and cook it down to 1/2 cup.
• Cook onions and garlic in olive oil until they start changing color.
• Add bell pepper and cook 2 minutes, Add tomatoes, broth and seasonings and simmer almost to a paste. Add shrimp and cook just until they become opaque. Stir in cornstarch diluted in 2 Tbsp water.
• Stir until thick.
• Add parsley.
• Let cool before using
• NOTES : May use other fillings such as chicken, hearts of palms, cheese Miriam Podcameni Posvolsky Rio de Janeiro

LITTLE PIES (EMPADINHAS)

Steps:

• Cut the butter into the flour mixed with the salt until the butter is the size of peas. Add one egg at a time until the dough forms a consistency that you can flatten in your flowered hand. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest 2 hours. This dough should not be handled too much. Roll into balls and flatten and place in little 1-inch ungreased pie tins. Fill with beef, shrimp, chicken or cheese filling (see below). Make a small ball of dough, flatten and place on top of the little pie. Squeeze around the edges to seal. Beat an egg yolk and paint the top of the little pies. Bake in a hot oven-400 degrees for 20 minutes and then reduce heat and bake at 350 degrees for 30 more minutes and serve immediately. These pies may be made in any size pans. The small pies are made for appetizers, the larger pies for a main course cut into serving pieces. If it is a large pie, you could call it an empadão. The individual meal size pies are called empada. The baking time will vary according to the pan size.