CHEESECAKE EMPANADA RECIPE RECIPES

Prep time: 50 minutes, plus chilling. Cook time: 40 minutes

Start by making the pastry. Add the flour and salt to a bowl and mix. Add the butter and rub in till you have something that resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre, add the eggs and mix in. Add the water and mix till you have a dough that comes together in a mound. To make life easier you can do all of the above in a food processor in the same order till you have a dough. Flatten the dough, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for an hour to firm up.

Make the filling by adding the eggs, sugar, butter, flour, milk, vanilla and pecans into a bowl and mixing till you have an even mixture. Pop to one side.

Take the dough out and roll to about 3mm thick, then cut out 26 circles with a 10cm round cutter.

Spread the circles out on a surface and evenly distribute your filling onto them, making sure to put the filling off-centre, because the other half has to fold over to create a semicircle. Now add a teaspoon of cream right on top of each one.

Brush the unfilled half of each circle with beaten egg and fold over to enclose the filling. Press and seal all the way around the join. Pop them all onto a tray and leave to chill for an hour.

Heat enough oil in a pan to be able to semi-deep shallow fry these. I like to use a large, deep frying pan and add enough oil to get just about halfway up. Heat the oil until, when you add a pinch of bread, it comes up to the surface. If you are using a thermometer, which is the most accurate way, then it needs to be at 180°C.

Add 3–4 empanadas, depending on the size of your pan, and fry for just a few minutes on each side till light golden brown. Each batch will take about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with a little salt as they come out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper. These are best eaten while hot.

Can be assembled a day in advance and then fried to serve.