Poblano & Cheese Empanadas

In this recipe I used poblano peppers. I grow poblano peppers every year along with several other pepper varieties. Poblano peppers have a mild earthy flavor. You can also use Hatch or Anaheim.

Make pastry crust. Mix softened butter and cream cheese by hand or hand mixer until smooth. Add half and half and combine. Mix together salt and flour in a separate bowl. Add the wet cream cheese mixture to the flour and salt. Knead the dough until one cohesive dough ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic, forming it into a disk. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to broil. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place 2 poblano peppers on the baking sheet. Broil until blistered, turn and broil the other side also until blistered about 10 minutes. Remove poblanos from the oven and allow too slightly cool. Place the poblano peppers in a Ziplock bag for 12-15 minutes, this will make them easier to peel. Peel the outer skin off of the poblanos, this will make them very tender. Slice the poblanos open with a paring knife, removing any seeds and membranes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut 6-inch circles out of the dough. I cut my circles using an upside-down medium mixing bowl which works great!

Cut the poblano peppers and cheese to fit the 6-inch dough circles approximately 1 inch by 3 inches.

Place the cheese and poblano pepper in the circle see photo. Fill a small bowl with water. Dip a fork (tines) into the water and crimp the empanadas. Dip, crimp, dip crimp until sealed.

Place the empanadas on the prepared baking sheet and brush with olive or vegetable oil. Bake for 10 minutes then rotate and bake for another 10 minutes or until the empanadas are a light golden brown.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!