All Empanadas Recipes:
Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas, paired with Gruyere Cheese Sauce – Delicious tender dough wrapped around a delicious savory filling with spinach, crimini mushrooms, bacon and a touch of marsala wine.
These Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas recipe is part of a group of empanada recipes you can find the original post here:
Empanada Dough
Pulse together flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening in your food processor. Drizzle in an egg yolk beaten with water. Pulse until a ball forms. Knead the ball a few times on a floured surface, form into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Shortcut: If you’re short on time…use pre-made refrigerated piecrust. You can also check the Latin section of the frozen foods case at your grocer. I have seen frozen empanada wrappers.
Spinach, Mushroom & Bacon Empanadas Filling
Saute thick cut bacon, onion, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, then add a little marsala wine. Finish with some parmesan cheese.
Gruyere Cheese Sauce
Make a roux with butter and flour. Add dry mustard, salt and white pepper. Stir in milk. Whisk until thickened. Add shredded Gruyere cheese and stir until melted.
Portion & Roll Dough
Cut your chilled dough in half. Roll each half into a cylinder. Cut each cylinder into 6 equal pieces. Roll the 12 pieces into balls and flatten slightly with your hand.
Fill & Form Your Empanadas
Roll each flattened ball into a 6-inch round. Fill with about 3 tablespoons filling. Fold over and pinch closed to form semi-circular shape. Press a fork around the edge to help seal and trim around the edge with a pizza wheel. Place on parchment lined baking sheet (I baked mine on an ungreased pan, but some of mine stuck from the egg wash – so I recommend lining the pan with parchment.) Brush with an egg wash and bake for 15-19 minutes or until golden browned.
All Empanadas Recipes:
Ingredients
For Dough:
- 2 cups flour plus extra for rolling
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter chilled
- 6 tablespoons vegetable shortening chilled & cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 cup cold water plus extra if needed
Egg Wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup cold water
For Filling:
- 4 slices thick cut bacon thinly sliced
- 1 cup baby bella / crimini mushrooms chopped small
- ½ cup onion diced small
- 1 package, 10-ounce frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry.
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic minced or pressed
- 2 tablespoons marsala wine
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
For Gruyere Cheese Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper white or black
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/4 cups Gruyere cheese shredded
Instructions
Prepare Dough:
- Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt and sugar in food processor bowl. Pulse a few times to combine.
- Add butter and shortening and pulse about 8 times until a coarse meal texture is formed.
- In small bowl, whisk egg yolk and 1/2 cup cold water.
- Slowly pour into food processor while running.
- When the dough starts to come together, remove to floured surface and knead a few times until dough is smooth (if the dough seems too crumbly, add another tablespoon or two of water.)
- Form dough into a disk. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. *Note when short on time you can use pre-made frozen empanada discs or refrigerated pie dough.
Prepare Filling:
- Cook bacon in large sauce pan over medium heat until just crispy. Remove bacon to paper towel lined plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon bacon drippings.
- Add mushrooms and onions and cook until they are soft and starting to turn golden brown.
- Add spinach and garlic. Cook, stirring for about 3 minutes or until warmed through. Add marsala wine and scrape up any browned bits from pan. Cook for about 2 minutes more.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese and reserved baon.
Assemble & Bake:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Cut dough disk in half. Roll each half into a 6 inch long cylinder.
- Cut each cylinder 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Slightly flatten dough ball with your hand.
- Dust both sides with flour and roll in a 5-6 inch diameter circle. The dough should be less than 1/4 inch thick.
- Spoon about 2-3 rounded tablespocns filling into the center, fold the top to meet the bottom and press with your fingers or a fork to seal edge.
- Trim excess dough, will form half-circle shape. Place on a large baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Repeat until all empanadas are formed.
- Whisk egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush empanadas with egg wash.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Prepare Cheese Sauce:
- In saucepan over medium-low heat melt butter. Stir in flour and cook for a minute or two
- Add salt, mustard and pepper. Whisk in milk and cook stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until thickened
- Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted and smooth.
Hi- we’ve invited some new neighbors over for appetizers and I was going to make empanadas and found your website. I think I will make the beef empanadas and the mushroom ones. Can they be made a day in advance or two days in advance? Would I freeze them? Does the Gruyere cheese sauce get hard if it’s left at room temperature for serving? I am going to use premade empanada shells and any advice would be appreciated. There will be about 12 people here.
Hi Deb – Sounds like fun! If I were freezing, I would just make sure the filling had cooled down before adding to the shell, so they don’t start softening or getting soggy. I would freeze in a single layer. Egg wash before baking. Baking from frozen may take a little longer. (fyi – I haven’t used the pre-made shells, but imagine the should freeze fine.) The cheese sauce, I would serve warm. It doesn’t get hard as quickly as say a Velveeta/Cheez Wiz type sauce does. Hope that helps!