Fruit Empanadas

So, tomorrow I am making a mexican themed breakfast, complete with beans, huevos rancheros, and fruit empanadas. I like to practice the principle of eating like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and (sometimes) a pauper for supper. It doesn't always happen that way, but I try to have great filling breakfasts as often as possible.

One of my first purchases as an adult was the cookbook 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes by Sue Spitler. It has inspired many of my own attempts at creating delicious meals. Today I'm going to share the fruit empanada recipe ~ simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

Filling ~

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup dried sweet cherries

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar (you could cut down on this)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

dash of lemon extract, or some lemon zest

Pastry ~

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 T. sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. shortening

1 tsp. lemon juice

3-4 Tbs. soymilk or water

Instructions:

Heat apricots, cherries and water to boiling in a small sauce pan. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until fruit is very soft, about 5 minutes. Mash fruit with fork until almost smooth; stir in sugar and spice.

Meanwhile, make your pastry. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in lemon juice and milk, a tablespoon at a time to form a soft dough.

Roll half of the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 1/8 in. thick; cut into circles with a 3-in. round cookie cutter (I used a glass cup). Place slightly rounded teaspoon of fruit mixture in center of each pastry circle; fold the pastries in half and crimp edges with tines of fork. Make a slit in top of each pastry with a knife.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees until golden, 12-15 minutes.

Yield: 24 empanadas [They are about 3-bites size! :)]

Enjoy ~