Easy Pumpkin Empanada Recipe for this Fall

For as long as I can remember, my cousin and I would help our grandmother make her pumpkin empanadas every fall. During the years when she had more time she would make everything from scratch and some she would improvise with shortcuts when time was sparse. My family and I now live a few hours away from my grandmother and I was feeling sentimental last year and wanted to recreate her pumpkin empanada recipe in my own way. I went into it knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I know that I am absolutely terrible at making pie dough, but I know my way around pumpkin. I decided to experiment and I found the way that I am going to make our families pumpkin empanadas for years to come and I am hoping that in the future my daughter will reminisce of the times when she was little and we would make this recipe together every fall.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 boxes or 12 shells- frozen tart shell dough

1 can or 15 oz- pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 cup- dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon- ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon- vanilla or homemade vanilla extract (click here for recipe)

1- egg

1 tablespoon- water

Directions:

1. Pull tart shells out of their foil casings and let them de-thaw on the counter.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the dark brown sugar and stir until they are combined. Stir until the sugar has slightly dissolved (about 1 minute) Do not overcook because the sugar will clump.
3. Add in pumpkin puree, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir and cook (about 3 minutes). Pull off heat and place in a bowl to cool.
4. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Flatten out each tart shell with your hand and then roll them out slightly with a rolling pin until they are the thickness of a nickle.
6. Place a few spoon fulls of filling on half of each dough circle. Do not put any filling along the edges.
7. Fold over the other half of the dough and seal each empanada first with your fingers and then with a fork. Cut off excess dough to make the edges smooth.
8. Mix one beaten egg with 1 table spoon of water for your egg wash.
9. Brush the egg wash onto the top of each empanada. Do not brush any egg wash onto the edges of your empanadas.
10. Poke each empanada with a fork three times.
11. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Let them cool slightly and enjoy!