Flaky Fresh Pineapple Empañadas

4.41 from 5 votes

Flaky Fresh Pineapple Empañadas

Crisp and flaky pastry surrounds fresh pineapple filling in this quick and delicious version of a classic mexican pastry. Premade pie crust makes it easy.

Prep Time1 hr

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time1 hr 20 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: comfort food, empanada, fresh pasta, healthy, pie, pineapple, treat

Servings: servings

Calories: 329kcal

Author: BlakOpal

Ingredients

Filling

1 Fresh pineapple peeled, cored, and roughly chopped into small pieces
2 cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
2 Tbsp Cold water

Pastry

1 box Pre-made pie crust
1 Egg beaten
Sugar for sprinkling

Tools

Large sharp knife
Wooden cutting board
Saucepan
Silicone spatula
Small mixing bowl
Immersion Blender or potato masher
4-6" round cookie cutter or small bowl to use as guide
Rolling pin
Spoon
Fork
Pastry brush
Cookie sheet pan
Silicone baking mat
Small knife
Wire cooling rack

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Making the Filling

Peel and core the pineapple by cutting the top and bottom off. Stand the pineapple on your cutting board and slice off the skin from top to bottom, taking about 1/4" of fruit off. Work your way around all sides. Make sure you cut off all of the small round holes left behind.
When all the skin is gone, slice down lengthwise using the core as your guide. Slice the halves into lengthwise quarters, following the core.
Slice off the inner core by cutting diagonally across each quarter lengthwise. Make sure to remove all of the light-colored core. This part is woody, and won't break down in cooking.
Roughly chop the pineapple into small pieces. The smaller, the better. There can be some small chunks.
Put the pineapple, sugar, salt, and ground cinnamon into a saucepan.
Using a silicone spatula, cook down the pineapple, stirring occasionally to keep it from burning or sticking. Scrape down the sides of the pan as you stir. When the mixture begins to boil reduce the heat and continue to cook for 15 minutes.
Mash the cooked pineapple slightly with an immersion blender, keeping it a bit chunky. (You can also use a potato masher).
In a small bowl, combine cold water and cornstarch and mix well.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the pineapple, stirring constantly to combine. Cook until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Prep for Pastries

Preheat Oven to 350°.
Remove boxed pie crusts from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. When at room temp, unroll and lay out flat on your cutting board.

Making Pastries

Using a round cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can fit on the sheet of pastry.
Note: if you don't have a large circle cutter, you can use a small bowl as a guide. Lay the bowl upside down on the pastry and run a small knife around the edge to cut the dough.
Set the circles aside and collect all of the cuttoff pieces. Repeat for second sheet of pastry.
Using the cutoff dough, gather it together into a ball and squeeze it slightly to combine. Do not overwork the dough or it will become tough! Continue to cut circles out of the remaining dough.
Lay out the circles on your cutting board and place a spoonful of cooled filling onto each circle, leaving room to fold them over and crimp them. For small circles, you can do this in your hand.
Using a pastry brush, brush some beaten egg on the inside edges of the dough, just wetting the pastry. Fold the dough over and press together with your fingers, making sure that the filling doesn't squeeze out the edges. It is important to have about 1/4"-3/8" of dough sealed around the edge. Use a fork to crimp the edges to seal them.
If holes appear while you are working with them, you can use leftover dough to patch them.
Place each empanada onto a silicone baking mat in your cookie sheet pan. Because they won't grow in the oven, you can place them close to each other on the baking tray. Brush the tops with beaten egg.
Sprinkle the pastries with sugar.
With a sharp small knife, poke a couple of small holes in each one. This will let the steam escape whick keeps them from bursting.
Put into the preheated oven, middle rack, for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown.
Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. You can test them right out of the oven, but the filling will be extremely hot! Don't worry if some of them have split open, they will still be delicious!
Big or small, these will become a new favorite treat! Enjoy

Nutrition