It's National Empanada Day. For those of you who don't know what an empanada is (or have never had one) you're in for an awesome treat, because we're going to teach you how to make empanadas. For those of you who have enjoyed the delicious, flakiness of this amazing dish, stay tuned for a tasty recipe.

The word empanada comes from the Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread.¹ And this bread is perfect for wrapping around a combination of many different foods, but we'll get to that in a minute. You can enjoy empanadas as small appetizers/snacks (like you see in the photo below), or you can make them larger for a nice dinner.

Empanada Dough

Ingredients

¾ cup butter, at room temperature
5 oz cream cheese
¹⁄₈ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 egg white, optional

Instructions

1. Add butter and cream cheese to WildSide+ or FourSide jar and secure lid.
2. “Pulse” 6-8 times or until butter and cream cheese are blended and creamy.
3. Add salt and 1 cup of flour and secure lid.
4. “Pulse” 6–8 times.
5. Use spatula to scrape sides of jar.
6. Add ½ cup flour, secure lid, and “Pulse” 6–8 times. Use spatula to scrape sides of jar.
7. Add remaining flour, secure lid, and “Pulse” 10–12 times or until all flour is incorporated.
8. Press dough together to form ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
9. Heat oven to 375 F.
10. Divide dough into 12 balls, and roll out each into a disk. Now that your empanada dough is ready, here is where the magic happens.

• Add filling of choice to half of each disk of dough. Fold other half of disk over covered half, and pinch edges to seal. For a glossy finish, brush tops of empanadas with egg whites.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes and enjoy!

Here's a brief list of just a few filling options (we strongly encourage you to use your imagination):

• Meat (chicken, beef, pork, etc.), veggies, cheese
• Veggies only
• Fruit preserves (peach, strawberry, etc.)
• Marshmallows and chocolate chips, or Nutella
• Beans, cheese, corn, your favorite veggies, cumin, chili powder

Let us know what creations you come up with in the comments below. *Note: Unbaked dough can be wrapped and frozen for later use. Click here for nutrition information »  ¹Wikipedia