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Kitchen Tools

The correct way to use an empanada maker / molder

Published: 07.15.2021 » Last updated: 04.02.2022

Making empanda by hand is not a skill developed overnight. Newbies may need a bit of help initially by learning the correct way to use an empanda maker / molder.

I won’t lie. It took me several attempts to make empanadas right. And between those attempts, there were occasions when I felt so frustrated that I bought a set of empanada maker / molder.

But using them wasn’t as easy as I thought either and they sat deep in a kitchen drawer for a long time before I learned to use them. And I did use them for a while. Not anymore though because making empanadas by hand is more fun. But newbies at empanada making who aren’t comfortable yet with folding and crimping the dough by hand might find it useful to know the correct way to use an empanda maker / molder.

Cutting dough using the back of an empanada maker / molder

So, prepare the empanada dough and roll it out to less than a quater of an inch thick. Use the bottom of the empanada maker to cut out circles. Just press down, twist a little and voila! Naturally, these circles will fit perfectly in the empanada molder.

Dough and filling on empanada maker / molder

Lift out a circle of dough and place on the empanada molder. Spoon the filling at the center.

This is the part where I did it wrong in the past. Because I had been so used to making empanada with no tools, I’d lay the dough flat, place the filling on one side, fold over the empty half of the dough over the half with the filling and press and crimp the edges together. I did the same thing with the empanada molder — I tried to fold over half of the dough over the other and made a mess. So, so wrong.

The correct way to use an empanada maker / molder

The right way is shown in the photo above. Holding the left and right handles of the empanada molder, lift them at the same time to close the empanada molder and to seal the empanada.

Empanada formed with an empanada maker / molder

And you have a perfectly formed empanada.

If you’re curious how I finally learned to use the empanda maker / molder, there was a food show back in 2012 that featured a diner that specializes inpierogi— Polish dumplings that look like empanadas but are really different from empanadas. The cook in that diner used an empanada maker to prepare the pierogi and how she used the empanada molder was shown in detail.

Connie Veneracion

Lawyer by education. Journalist by accident. Home cook and writer by passion. Photographer by necessity. Good food, coffee and wine lover forever. Read more about me and Umami Days. Find me on Flipboard, Substack and Pinterest.

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