Thursday, March 19, 2015

Empanada cooking experience

This week some children had the experience to bake empanadas from scratch as a part of their small group. Their interest for this activity came from their discussions about people having different likes and dislikes and accepting those differences; children have experienced taste testing salty empanadas as a part of their lunch menu and wanted to try something new!


 Children mixed dry ingredients to create the dough for the empanadas.

 They kneaded the dough.
Children measured pineapple and other ingredients to create a pineapple filling.

The empanadas were filled and refrigerated overnight and they got to taste their delicious pastries during small group! The children in this small group also referenced the directions for the empanada recipe as they went along.

Teaching Strategies Gold Objective
Objective 17: Demonstrates knowledge of print and its uses
Objective 22: Compares and measures
Miss. Pastrana

1 comment:

  1. Pineapple Empanada Recipe

    Dough:
    6 oz. cream cheese, softened
    1 cup butter, softened
    2 cups flour
    pinch of salt

    Pineapple filling:
    1/2 cup pineapple juice
    2 Tbsp corn starch
    3 Tbsp sugar
    8 oz. can crushed pineapple

    1 egg white, beaten
    sugar and cinnamon

    Directions: Preheat oven to 375-degrees and grease a baking sheet. To make the dough, in a bowl, mix together the cream cheese and butter until well blended. Add the flour and salt and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead for about 1 minute, then form into a ball. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

    To make the filling, whisk the pineapple juice and corn starch together in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the corn starch is dissolved. Add the sugar and bring the mixture to a boil, continuing to stir. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes quite thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the crushed pineapple. Let cool.


    On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/4 in thick. Cut in 3-inch rounds (or smaller, if desired). Place on baking sheet and drop about 1 tsp. filling in the center of each round. Fold one side over the filling, seal tightly with your fingers, then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush the tops with the beaten egg white, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. Serve warm. To store, keep them in an air-tight container at room temperature.

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete