Taco Empanadas
These Taco Empanadas have a flaky pastry and cheesy ground meat filling in every hand held bite.
My first attempt at pizza bites failed completely. The dough fell apart, they didn’t have much flavor, and definitely wouldn’t pass the test to make it onto the blog. If you’d like to see a picture there is one on my Instagram. It’s not pretty. On the positive side, they were edible enough to not just throw them away.
Luckily, savory pastry attempt number two was a huge success. I didn’t want to make a traditional empanada because I saw that my friend Sarah over at Mrs. Criddle’s Kitchen had one already using the bagel dog dough so I decided to make it cheesy and more taco-y in a flaky pie crust.
What are empanadas?
Empanadas are a Latin American or Spanish hand-held pastry with savory fillings. They can be filling with ground meat, chicken, cheese, or even vegetables.
Ingredients
Crust:
- almond flour
- coconut flour
- cold butter
- cold water
- egg
- pinch of salt
Filling:
- cooked ground turkey or beef
- cream cheese
- shredded cheddar cheese
- taco seasoning
How to Make Taco Empanadas
Step One: Make the pastry dough.
Step Two: Make the filling.
Step Three: Roll out the dough and cut it into circles.
Step Four: Add a scoop of filling into each circle. Fold over the dough enclosing the filling and crimp the edges with a fork to seal the dough.
Step Five: Bake the empanadas until hot and golden brown.
This made 9 empanadas. I really wish I had gotten an even number. I just prefer even numbers and it feels strange to list the recipe yield as 9 empanadas. Maybe you should make a double batch so you have 18 keto empanadas.
What do I do with extra filling?
I had some filling leftover so I ate it plain. It was delicious just eaten with a spoon. If you do not want leftover filling use 2/3 cup of meat, 3 tbsp cream cheese, 2/3 cup cheddar, and taco seasoning to taste.
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Taco Empanadas
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/3 cups almond flour
- 1 1/2 tsp coconut flour
- 2 tbsp cold butter
- 1 1/2 tsp cold water
- 1 egg
- pinch salt
Filling:
- 1 cup cooked ground turkey or beef
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1-2 tsp taco seasoning I used 1.5 tsp of a salt free seasoning so I also added 1/4 tsp of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Combine the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.
- Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut circles using an upside down quart size mason jar (or any other circular object that is about 3 inches across). Reroll the extra dough and make more circles until it is all used up.
- Stir together the cooked meat, cheeses, and seasoning. Taste it. Add more seasoning or salt if needed.
- Put a heaping tablespoon of meat filling on each circle. Fold in half and seal the edges with your fingers. Press lines into the edges with a fork.
- Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
The pastry is impossible to work. I added an extra egg, extra butter, more water and eve added some xanthum gum but it was just so crumbly, very disappointing.
I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with the pastry. Did you mix it in a food processor? And only use 1 teaspoon of coconut flour? This is similar to my pie crust which gets great reviews. But I have had some people accidentally use a tablespoon or even a cup of coconut which would obviously make a huge difference.
Relatively new to THM, so please bare with my ignorance. How can 3 of these be an THM S? Wouldn’t that be 57g of fat and 3 carbs (carbs minus fiber)?? I thought an S was 5g fat and no more than 10 carbs? Thank you! This sounds delicious. I have a tool from Pampered Chef that makes these pockets, haven’t tried it yet!
You are thinking of a FP. You don’t have to could fat for an S, just carbs.
Love this recipe!! I usually make two batches of the dough and that works out with whatever meat/cheese mixture I’m using. I’ve made it with leftover pulled pork as well, and it’s so good!
How do you think the dough would work with just egg yolk? I have a friend with egg white allergy.
I’m glad you like it! Just egg yolk would be fine. You’ll need 2-3 to equal one whole egg.
Loved the flavors, but the dough was a nightmare. Wouldn’t hold at all. I did two batches of this and I got very little and no where near what it said I would for the dough.
Hi Amanda, I’m not sure why the dough didn’t work for you. Did you only use 1.5 teaspoons of coconut flour? Using too much makes the dough too dry. You might prefer the dough I use for these instead: http://joyfilledeats.com/spicy-chicken-empanadas/
What if I only have coconut flour could I use that alone for the crust instead of the almond flour
Maybe. If you try you will only need about 1/3 – 1/2 of the amount of almond flour. Coconut is much drier.
I made these tonight for an S dinner. I added a little picante sauce to the beef mixture. They were delicious but the crust wouldn’t hold together. It seemed a little too wet maybe? I used wax paper I stead of parchment paper, maybe that was part of the issue too? I sprayed the cookie pan but they stuck. I’d If I use less water next time do you think that’ll help hold them together better? I’ll be making them again! Thank you.
Using the wax paper was probably part of the problem. Did you bake them on the wax paper? Or just use it for rolling them? Parchment paper is non-stick and oven safe. I’m not sure why your dough was too wet. You can add less water. Sometimes I find this dough to be a little too dry and have to add extra. You could always sub in the dough I used in my new spicy chicken empanadas instead: http://joyfilledeats.com/spicy-chicken-empanadas/
Has anyone made this successfully with the baking blend?
Hi! These looked so delicious. I couldn’t wait to try them! I ran out and bought the ingredients almost immediately. Sadly, however, the crust didn’t stick together at all. In fact, it stayed rather flour-y even after all the ingredients were incorporated. It wasn’t even like course crumbles. When I finally threw in the towel I had added another egg, two more tablespoons of butter, and an entire cup of ice cold water. At that point, it was sticking together, but fell apart if I tried to do anything at all with it. I was wondering if you might know what I did wrong. Thanks so much! I would really love to make these. They look absolutely delicious!
I’m not exactly sure what happened. I think adding an cup of water would’ve been too much. I’ve made this crust several times and have had readers make it too without a problem.
Also, you did use 1 1/3 cups almond flour and only 1 1/2 teaspoons coconut flour, right? If you accidentally used more coconut flour that would’ve caused that.
I had the same problem as this reader. I made it with the THM blend so I assumed that I would have to add another egg since it looked like flour with a smear of egg in it. 4 eggs later, I’m still trying to figure out how to make this dough work. 🙁
Hi Jennifer, the other reader accidentally put in way too much coconut flour. She put 1 1/2 cups of coconut flour instead of teaspoons.
Can I just confirm that you used 1 1/3 cup THM Baking Blend? Plus 1 1/2 teaspoons to replace the coconut flour?
I can’t imagine needing so many eggs for that much BB. I know that is takes a little more liquid but not that much more.
Oh my gosh! I know what I did, and I am too embarrassed to say! I’m sure you can probably guess, though! Thank you so much for your response. I can’t wait to try this recipe again.
Haha. 1 1/2 cups coconut flour? Don’t worry, we’ve all done that before. Myself included. I have a bad habit of not completely reading recipes. Lol.
What do you think the chances are that the crust would work out with using the THM baking blend? I have all of the ingredients with the exception of the flours, I just have the baking blend. I’d like to make these tomorrow with my ground turkey I have thawing in the fridge!!! Sound so yummy!
I think it would work. If it’s too crumbly you can add an extra egg. Lmk if you try it!
Can these be frozen?
I haven’t tried but I think so.
How many are one serving?
In the nutrition table those amounts are for one. I would eat two or three for a meal with a side salad personally.
Your recipes are great and these look especially good. Great item for packed lunches too. I had to laugh at your “odd” number distress, I’m the same way and thought I was the only one. My entire birthdate is all odd numbers, it’s always bugged me.
I always wonder if anyone actually reads what I write. lol. I end up babbling sometimes.
Me too!
I more just think even numbers look prettier, but i do seem to avoid odd numbers in my life. I chose a wedding date that was all even and I also chose even birthdays for my two kids that I got to pick (and the other two came on even days on their own).