Michoacan Squash Empanadas (Empanadas de Chilacayote)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide clay cazuela or heavy 4-quart pot
• •Rolling pin
• •5-inch round cutter or clean jar lid
• •Two baking sheets
• •Pastry brush
• •Cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the syrup

   Put the piloncillo, water, canela, cloves, orange peel, and salt in a wide clay cazuela or heavy pot. Set it over medium heat and stir until the piloncillo dissolves into a dark syrup. The smell should be deep and warm, not sharp. If the syrup boils hard, lower the heat. Piloncillo burns quickly once it thickens.

2. 2

   Add the chilacayote

   Add the chilacayote chunks and stir so every piece is coated. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 35 to 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the squash softens and begins to separate into threads. Do not mash it. The strands are what make this filling chilacayote and not generic squash paste.

   If your market has whole chilacayote, choose one that feels heavy for its size with a hard, pale green skin. If it has soft spots, leave it there. Preguntale a las señoras del mercado.
3. 3

   Reduce the filling

   Uncover the pot and continue cooking for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring more often now, until the liquid reduces and the chilacayote looks glossy, amber, and thick enough to mound on a spoon. Pull out the cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel. Spread the filling on a tray and let it cool completely. Warm filling melts the lard in the dough and makes the empanadas leak. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Mix the dough

   Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add the chilled manteca and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized pieces of fat. Those pieces make the dough tender. If you work the lard until it disappears, the pastry bakes flat and tired.

5. 5

   Bring it together

   Beat the eggs with the cold milk, then pour them into the flour mixture. Mix with your hand until a soft dough forms. If dry flour remains at the bottom, add milk one teaspoon at a time. The dough should hold together without sticking to your fingers. Knead it only four or five times, just enough to make it smooth.

6. 6

   Rest the dough

   Divide the dough in half, flatten each piece into a disk, wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Resting lets the flour hydrate and keeps the empanadas from shrinking in the oven. This is not wasted time. The dough is doing its work while you clean the table.

7. 7

   Roll and cut

   Heat the oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. On a lightly floured table, roll one dough disk to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut 5-inch circles with a bowl, cutter, or the lid of a clean jar. Michoacan kitchens are practical. Use what gives you an even circle.

8. 8

   Fill and seal

   Place 1 generous tablespoon of cooled chilacayote filling slightly off center on each circle. Fold the dough over into a half-moon and press the edges closed with your fingers, then crimp with a fork or twist a small repulgue along the edge. Do not overfill them. A greedy empanada opens in the oven and makes a mess.

9. 9

   Brush and bake

   Set the empanadas on the prepared sheets with space between them. Brush lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the tops are golden and the crimped edges are deeper brown. The filling may bubble at one or two seams. That is fine. A tray with no marks looks like nobody cooked.

10. 10

    Cool before serving

    Let the empanadas cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then move them to a rack. Eat warm or at room temperature with cafe de olla. The filling settles as it cools and the lard crust firms into the right bite. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Chilacayote is the correct squash. If you cannot find it, ask at Mexican mercados in autumn and winter, especially vendors who sell calabaza for dulce. Kabocha or butternut will make a pleasant empanada, but the texture will be wrong because they do not pull into threads. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use piloncillo, not brown sugar, if you can get it. Piloncillo tastes of cane, minerals, and smoke from the old processing. Brown sugar mostly tastes sweet. That difference shows up in a filling this plain.
• •The lard must be fresh and clean-smelling. If it smells old, it will ruin the pastry. Buy rendered pork lard from a Mexican butcher or render your own from leaf lard. La manteca es el sabor, but only when the manteca is good.
• •These empanadas are not supposed to be spicy. Not all Mexican food is built on chile. Michoacan has sweets, breads, fruit pastes, ates, and piloncillo work that deserve the same respect as carnitas and uchepos.
• •If the chilacayote is watery after cooking, keep reducing it. A wet filling leaks. A thick, glossy filling stays where you put it. Así se hace y punto.

Advance Preparation

• •The chilacayote filling can be made up to 5 days ahead and refrigerated in a covered container. It thickens as it rests, which makes filling easier.
• •The dough can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling so it does not crack.
• •Unbaked empanadas can be frozen on a tray until firm, then packed into a freezer bag for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen at 375F, adding 5 to 7 minutes.
• •Baked empanadas keep at room temperature for 2 days in a covered container. Rewarm in a 300F oven for 8 minutes to refresh the crust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 92g)