Many people have requested my MINCEMEAT TURNOVER (Empanadas) recipe. So I am posting it here so
everyone can access it. 

This recipe is very old and handed down from great-grandmothers in my mother’s family. It was
made for large batches and has no steadfast portions. You just adjust the ingredients according
to your tastes. 

After you have made it the first time, you will be able to tell which ingredient you like most
and would like to increase. 

I personally like less meat and more sweet potatoes in the recipe. 

When you start, remember that it takes 2 – 3 days to complete. If you have a short cut that will
not affect the taste but save time, please let me know. 

These are not for diabetics, they have lots of sugar; or for people on a diet – they carry a
ot of calories!! 

HERE IT IS: 

INGREDIENTS FOR FILLING: 

5 lbs. Lean Beef roast such as Rump Roast or watermelon cut. Lean pork roast can be
substituted. Many people use Pork, I have never tried it. 

5 lbs. Sweet Potatoes or yams. If you like the sweet potato taste more than meat add more
Sweet potatoes and deduct from the meat total, i.e. 6 lbs sweet potatoes, 4 lbs meat, etc. 

4 or 5 cups sugar, or according to taste. 

Walnuts or Pine Nuts according to taste, I like a lot. 

Raisins, I put very little, don’t like them cooked in food. 

5 Tablespoons Cinnamon or according to taste 
5 Tablespoons Nutmeg or according to taste 
5 Tablespoons Allspice or according to taste 

INGREDIENTS FOR PASTRY: 

2 cups Flour, use good flour, they will be fluffier; 

½ cup solid vegetable shortening; some people use lard, I use Crisco, it’s easier
to work with and makes then fluffier. 

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, be careful with this if it has too much they will rise
too much when frying and soak up too much grease. 

1 pinch salt 
1 pinch sugar 
Water as needed. 

Mix dough the same as you would for pie crusts.

FIRST DAY: 

Cut the meat into small chunks (approximately 2 – 3 inch cubes). Put in large
pot to boil in water. Make sure there is plenty of water – way above the meat. You MUST
save this broth after the meat is cooked. 

The more meat you cook, the longer it will take to cook. Make sure the meat
is cooked thoroughly. When it falls apart after sticking a fork in it, it’s ready. 

Peel the sweet potatoes or yams, cut each one into fourths and put in pot to boil. These
will cook faster than the meat. When cooked, drain the water; you don’t need this broth. 

These two items usually take most of the day to cook if you are making a large batch.
If it’s a smaller batch like one lb of each ingredient, it will finish quickly. 

Either way, you must let them cool all the way; or until you can handle them without
burning your hands! 

SECOND DAY: 

Set up your meat grinder. I have an old fashioned one that my mother left me. It is
powered by my husband or son; I no longer have the stamina to grind the meat. 

If you have a food processor, you are lucky! You will be done in no time! 

Grind all the meat in the finest setting available. You want to make “minced” 
meat. No solid pieces. Make sure to remove any sinew from the meat as you grind. 
If there is a small amount of fat, don’t worry; just grind it along with the meat. 
It will add to the flavor. 

Grind all the sweet potatoes. These are easy! Just don’t leave a large chunk.
Someone may get a big bite of nothing but sweet potatoes. 

As the meat is being ground, put it into a large covered roasting pan. The 
type of roasting pan you use for your large thanksgiving turkey. I like to 
use the blue china covered roasting pans. The mincemeat mix doesn’t stick as
much as in the steel pans.
 
Add all the ingredients into the roasting pan; except the nuts and raisins,
add them much later. 

I usually add the meat first, then the sweet potatoes as they are ground 
and mix thoroughly. 

After mixing, I add the sugar and mix. 

Next, I add the spices and mix thoroughly. This is where I get really tired. . . mixing
all the time. Take a small taste to see if the sugar, meat and sweet potatoes are to your liking. 

Can’t do much for the meat and sweet potatoes, cause you only have a certain amount;
but this is how you will learn what taste you like the best for next time. 

Now take the cooled broth from boiling the meat and add to the mix. Add enough broth
so the mix is slushy, but not swimming in water. Make sure to mix thoroughly. 

Set your pan in the oven and set your oven at 350 degrees. Make sure it doesn’t get
 too hot or the mix will burn; too low and the mix will not cook fast enough or good enough. 

Notice the color of the mix will be a sort of reddish brown and very wet. This color
 will change as you cook it. It will get darker and dryer. 

Now, be ever vigilant!! I can’t stress that enough! You must mix the mincemeat
 filling every ten or 15 minutes or it will burn! 

How often you mix it depends on how hot your oven is. Ovens vary in their
 intensity. After the first couple of times mixing it, you should be able
 to tell how long to wait to mix it again. 

After about 45 minutes of cooking look at the color, is it darker all over
 or just around the top layer? How is the moisture content? Still lots of broth?
 It should be drier. This needs to cook until the broth is dry but the mix has moisture. 

Take another small taste of the mix . . . . is there enough sugar and spices to
 your taste? If not, add more. More sugar if you want them sweeter or more spices
 if they taste too bland. Add the nuts and raisins when almost cooked so they don’t get soggy. 

Keep mixing and watching the color of the mix and the dryness. 

When the mix is cooked well enough, the color will be dark brown and the moisture
 will be gone. The mix should stand in little peaks when the spoon is removed.
 This is because the sugar has melted and started to carmelize with the meat. 
Sort of like when you make candy. 

If the mix is to your liking, remove it from the oven. Leave it covered and
 let it cool over night. 

THIRD DAY: 

Yay! Almost done! 

Now comes the fun part! 

Make the pastry dough. You can buy already made pastry dough such as pie crust,
 biscuit tubes or filo dough. I tried all three and this is what I think. You can
 try them and decide for yourself also. 

Pie crust, has too much shortening and falls apart when you roll it. 
Biscuits are too greasy, they don’t fall apart, but has too much salt for
 my taste and don’t roll out thin enough. Philo dough is very thin but was too 
hard for me to handle and too dry. 

When making the dough, make a small batch at a time. If you make too much at once,
 it will get too dried out by the time you use it. 

Making the dough is just like pastry, mix it by hand or use a dough mixer, your
 choice. After you have mixed the dry ingredients thoroughly, add the shortening 
and water. Add shortening first and mix until you have crumbs stuck together. Then,
 start adding the water. Be careful, if you put too much water, it will be a sticky
 mess! Just add a little at a time until the dough sticks all together nicely. 

Knead the dough until smooth. Cut up into small balls about 3 inches. Roll out
 the dough into a thin “tortilla”. This is a lot of work when you have a lot of
 mincemeat filling to use. I bought a cheap manual pasta machine. It cuts the rolling
 work down to half. You will have to use smaller balls of dough for the machine,
 but the work goes a lot faster. 

After rolling out the dough, use a biscuit cutter or donut cutter to cut the round
 dough shapes for the turnovers. My father used to make the pastry dough for my 
mother and he would use the top cover of an old stove top coffee percolator. 
You know, the kind that sits on top of your stove to cook the coffee! 
It was the perfect size. I still have it! 

Now get a plateful of the mincemeat mix and a tablespoon. 

Get the cut circles of dough and place it in front of you on a plate or wax paper
 lined cutting board. Place a tablespoon of mix on top of the dough. Place the 
mix on top of the circle so that it is halfway towards you, but leave enough 
of a margin around the front edge. When you “turnover” the dough to cover the
 mix, you will need this edge to stick together. Once you have turned over the
 dough, you will have a half moon shape. 

Get a fork and press all the open edges together so that they stick together. 
This is the easiest way. Make sure that both edges are completely stuck together.
 If they don’t, they will pop open when frying and make a mess. There is a special
 pinch and turn step that my mother taught me and gives the “empanadas a fancy edge,
 but I would have to see you in person to teach it to you. Maybe you already know 
it from your childhood. 

After you have pinched the edges of your half moon turnover, press down on the 
whole piece with your fingers so it’s not just a lump in the middle of the dough. 
Then set it aside on a piece of paper towel or wax paper. Make sure that you cover 
them with a cloth towel so they stay moist until the frying. 

Once you have about two or three dozen of these wonderful pastries half moons, 
it’s time for the last step! 

LAST STEP: 

Get a large frying pan – not a deep fat fryer, and put plenty of oil to get hot. 
It has to be hot enough to fry the pastry quickly to a golden brown, yet not burn them. 

When you think the oil is ready, drop a tiny ball of dough into the oil to test 
the readiness. Then if ready, carefully drop 2 or 3 turnovers into the oil. If 
you are new to this process, don’t do more than 2 or 3 at a time until you are 
more aware of how long it takes to fry them. 

When the turnovers are showing edges that are golden, turn them over and do 
the other side. When both are done, take them out and lay them on several layers
 of paper towels to drain and soak up the excess oil. 

I usually drop the turnovers into the oil by hand and then pick them out with 
a slotted spoon so that all the grease will drain. After they have drained on
 the initial paper towels, move them to another cleaner set of paper towels to
 cool off. 

When they are cool, they are ready to eat! Perfection! 

BE CAREFUL!! 
Don’t eat too soon! The dough outside may be cool, but the mix inside stays 
hot longer than the pastry. 

Enjoy! These are sooo fattening, but so tasty! Don’t eat too many at a 
sitting and you should be ok with the fat. I have baked these instead 
of frying. They were good, but I didn’t care for them. It seems the frying
 adds yet another flavor that makes them great. 

If you have any questions or comments, please ask or post. I am interested
 in hearing from you and how it went. Remember this recipe is for a large
 amount. Experiment and cut the recipe down for smaller amounts and let
 us know how it goes. 

Thanks for the interest, 

Aveli