Empanadas de la Concepción

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5-quart cazuela or Dutch oven for frying
• •Candy or deep-fry thermometer
• •4-inch round cutter or small bowl
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Wooden bean masher or sturdy fork

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the camote filling

   Place the sweet potato chunks in a heavy pot with the cinnamon stick, piloncillo, orange peel, and just enough water to barely cover. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cook uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until the camote is fork-tender and the liquid has reduced to a thick syrup that coats the back of a spoon. The kitchen will smell like the sweet stalls in the Mercado Lucas de Galvez in Mérida. That smell is the piloncillo caramelizing against the canela.

   Use Ceylon cinnamon, the true canela, not cassia. Cassia is harsh and woody. Canela de Ceylan is floral and soft, and it is the cinnamon the nuns used. The difference is the dish.
2. 2

   Mash and finish the filling

   Fish out the cinnamon stick and the orange peel. Stir in the tablespoon of manteca while the camote is still hot. Mash by hand with a fork or a wooden bean masher until smooth but with a little texture. Do not use a blender. You want body, not baby food. Let the filling cool completely. Warm filling tears cold dough. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Build the dough

   In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the cold lard pieces and work them in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal with a few pea-sized bits of fat still visible. Those bits of lard are what make the dough flaky when it fries. La manteca es el sabor.

4. 4

   Bring the dough together

   Whisk the egg yolks with the sherry and cold milk. Pour into the flour mixture and work it together with a wooden spoon, then your hands, until a soft dough forms. If it feels dry, add cold milk one tablespoon at a time. The dough should be smooth and pliable, not sticky. Knead briefly on a floured surface for 30 seconds, just to bring it together. Wrap in a clean cloth and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

   The sherry is not decorative. The conventual recipes from Mérida and Campeche always carried a splash of fortified wine or aguardiente. It cuts the richness of the lard and gives the dough a depth you can taste even after frying.
5. 5

   Roll and cut the discs

   On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in half. Roll one half at a time to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut rounds with a 4-inch cutter or the rim of a small bowl. Re-roll the scraps once, no more. Each disc should be thin enough to crisp but sturdy enough to hold the filling without splitting at the seam.

6. 6

   Fill and seal

   Place a heaping tablespoon of the cooled camote filling on one side of each disc, leaving a half-inch border. Lightly moisten the edge with water. Fold the dough over to form a half-moon. Press the edges with the tines of a fork or twist them into the repulgue, the rope-edge crimp the Yucatecan cooks use. Seal them tight. A weak seal will burst in the lard and you will lose the filling to the oil.

7. 7

   Heat the lard

   In a heavy, wide pot or cazuela, melt the four cups of lard over medium-high heat. Bring it to 350°F. Test with a small scrap of dough: it should sizzle steadily on contact and float to the surface within seconds. If it sinks and sits, the lard is too cold and the empanadas will absorb fat. If it browns instantly, the lard is too hot and the inside will be raw. Watch the surface for a faint shimmer across the fat. That is the sign.

8. 8

   Fry in batches

   Slide the empanadas into the lard three or four at a time, never crowding the pot. Fry for two to three minutes per side, turning once with a slotted spoon, until they are deep gold and blistered. Lift them out and let them drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Lard cooled by the meat means greasy empanadas. Hot lard means crisp ones. Así se hace y punto.

9. 9

   Dust and serve warm

   While the empanadas are still warm, mix the cup of granulated sugar with the ground Ceylon cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Roll each empanada in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Eat them within the hour, while the shell is still crisp and the filling is still warm. They are at their best with a small cup of chocolate caliente or a coffee with a little anise.

Chef Tips

• •Camote amarillo, the yellow Mexican sweet potato, has a drier, more chestnut-like flesh than the orange Louisiana yam most American markets carry. If you can find it at a Mexican mercado, use it. If you cannot, white-fleshed Japanese sweet potato is closer than orange. The orange one is wetter and the filling will turn soupy.
• •Manteca de cerdo, real rendered pork lard, is the dough and the fry. Vegetable shortening will give you a tough, flavorless shell. If you cannot find good lard at a carniceria, render your own from pork back fat. It is one afternoon of work and you will have lard for months.
• •If you want to make these with manjar blanco instead of camote, which is the older convent filling, cook two cups of whole milk with one cup of sugar, a cinnamon stick, and the zest of a lemon over low heat for about two hours, stirring often, until it thickens to a spoonable cream. That version belongs to the nuns. The camote version is the household adaptation. Both are correct.

Advance Preparation

• •The camote filling can be made two days ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to room temperature before filling, never warm.
• •The dough can be made one day ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it come back to room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling or it will crack.
• •Fry the empanadas the day they will be eaten. They lose their crisp within a few hours and they do not reheat well. This is a fresh-from-the-cazuela dish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)