
Baked Empanadas
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 10 empanadas • Cook Time: 15 minutes • Points: 3 points each
I love empanadas!! Empanadas are delicious turnover pastries stuffed with picadillo, crab, guava, cheese or anything you desire. All latin countries have different versions of empanadas with variations of dough and fillings. Some are fried and some are baked. Personally I love them fried but they are terribly fattening so this is my low point empanada version of a personal favorite. These were made with beef picadillo and for the dough I used Goya brand discs from the frozen section in my supermarket but if you want to make yours from scratch, Laylita has a great recipe which I am going to use next time I make them. The meat can be made in advance. Since I make picadillo so often, I always have leftover to make empanadas. Here is my easy recipe:
- 1 14oz. package of (10) frozen Goya discs, defrosted
- 1 egg beaten
- glass of water
- Baking Pam Spray
Preheat the oven to 400°. Spray 2 cookie sheets with Pam baking spray.
On a working surface like a large wooden cutting board, spread the dough out slightly using a roller. Place 2 tsp of the picadillo filling in the center of the dough. Moisten the edge on the top half of the circle with a little water on your finger. Fold the bottom half of the dough up until the edges meet and seal with your fingers by pressing down to form a half circle.
Next, fold the edges of the dough using your fingertip, fold one corner of the empanada over, pressing down firmly, repeateating all around, pressing firmly each time to maintain a seal around the edge of the empanada in a spiral pattern.

Gently transfer each empanada onto the cookie sheet and lightly brush the top of the empanada with egg wash.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.


















Hey are these 2 or 3 points? I know sometimes it's right on the brink, but your title says 3 and the recipe says 2. Thanks for saving me the calculation. ;)
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I'll be making these soon.
Awesome, Gina!!! I love empanadas, too and I just saw those Goya wrappers in my supermarket! Can't wait to try these! You're the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aleta for noticing my typo! They are 3 points each. Just fixed it!
ReplyDeleteDo you know if these hold up well if you prepare them a day ahead and refrigerate? Or do they just get soggy?
ReplyDeleteWhen I made them last we had extras and reheated them in the oven and they were perfect. Just make sure they are room temperature before you refrigerate them.
ReplyDeleteThose are gorgeous! Your site is great...I'll be back for sure.
ReplyDeleteGreat recipe! I had empanadas when I was in Argentina and would love to try making them myself. Thanks for the recipe! Where can you find the Goya discs? Are there other alternative "wrappers" you can suggest? Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Hillary
ReplyDeleteI find them at Pathmark in the frozen section as well as in Latin Supermarkets. An alternative would be to make the dough from scratch which tastes even better.
Hi Gina,
ReplyDeleteYou surprise me every time again! I ate these empanadas during various of my visits to South America and I'm a big fan of these. They are so tasteful!! Now with your never ending help I can make them at home, great!! Thanks!
Thismakesmyday
very nice! do you turn your empanada, or does the underside just stay not browned?
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't turn them, they get brown from the heat of the baking pan. Goya now sells a flaky crust. I just bought it and I'm going to make baked crab empanadas soon!
ReplyDeleteThis is perfect! I also loved empanadas and my son does too. I have used the Goya discs before but I fried them not knowing I could bake them instead. I have not made them in a long time because I did not want it to fry them to avoid the calories. Thanks so much, since it is one of the foods I crave from my country and I love that now I can make them at home.
ReplyDeleteRico!! I like the empanadas a lot, they are my favorite snack. I can eat lots of them!
ReplyDeleteFelĂz Navidad Gina!
I love that you have so many Latin-ispried recipes! I've looked through many sites and have been turned off by the pseudo Latin recipes. While "dieting," I miss the comforting favors seen in our cooking but am at a loss as to how to prepare them in a way that would also comfort my waistline ;) Thank you for taking out the guesswork and providing so many delicious recipes!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Esther! You can't just add salsa to a recipe and call it Latin, I know what you mean!! Many more to come!!
ReplyDeleteGina did you ever make those crap emnpanads? I'd love to see the recipe and know how they came out! I MISS those from Puerto Rico. Alcapurrias made with crab are my favorite but the empanadas would be just as good!
ReplyDeleteI am making these as we speak..they smell delicious!
ReplyDelete@Jennistar - No crab empanadas, I'll have to remember to pick up some crab and make them soon!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you thought I could use reduced fat crecent rolls instead of the Goya?
ReplyDeleteI've never tried it that way but maybe? If you try it, let me know how it tastes.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great recipe, thanks! Also love your healthy other recipes I can't wait to try them.
ReplyDeletemade this yesterday, amazing!!! my only complaint is with the dough puffing up so much it felt like there wasnt enough filling. im sure this could be remedied by adding an extra point worth of filling. i would gladly use 4 points on this delicious empanada. i made 20 and froze half. usually when you are frying them they can go straight from the freezer to the oil. but im thinking since these are baked i should take them out and defrost them first...... have you tried this Gina?
ReplyDeleteYes, I've baked them from frozen and they were great. I pre-heated the pan first and sprayed it with oil. I also found since making these several times, spraying the empanadas lightly on both sides with olive oil spray bakes them up nice and crispy.
ReplyDeleteI have made these a couple of times now and I have to say they are a HUGE HIT. The first time I made them for the Super Bowl, great party snack. The filling went a long way and I ended up with enough for double the recipe so I froze a bunch. We enjoyed them with no problem. I even put the frozen ones right in the toaster oven and it was quick and easy. The second time I made them, I did about a third of them with shrimp instead of beef because my friend who was throwing the party doesn't eat red meat. The shrimp was an even bigger hit. I think that because I was trying to divide up the spices between the two fillings on the fly, the shrimp ended up a bit spicier which everyone seemed to like, so I would say that putting a little extra is good.
ReplyDeleteI love them with shrimp! Crab too!
ReplyDeleteI just made these and they were awesome! I want to eat the rest of them!
ReplyDeleteI cannot find the Goya discos in any markets here. I am so bummed. I suppose I will have to make the dough myself. (Was hoping to take the lazy route.) I do have a points question, though. I was doing some research (wanted to see the points value on the discs so I could make a recipe with same value so the overall pointage of the empanada would be the same. On Goya's site, it says the discos are 170 calories, 4g fat, and 1 g fiber per disc, which is 4 pts. So, I'm not sure how adding the filling would bring the point value down to 3 pts per empanada. i don't mean to pester you about something so silly, I'm just confused.
ReplyDeleteSeparately, I just want to say thank you for such an awesome site. Your recipes are inspiring, delicious, and easy to follow. I love your food photography, too. What a great resource!
Thanks,
Margaret
The Gutsy Mom- Thank you so much!!
ReplyDeleteThe discs come in two sizes, so I'm wondering if you were looking at the larger discs?
I don't do WW but I do watch calories. Is there a way to convert points to calories? I love your ideas and have started cooking one almost every day. I can't believe I'm going over on calories (1200) watching the points. I just want to be sure. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeletethese are soooo amazing i'm making them for the second time. i use ground turkey instead of ground beef. thanx for the recipe i will be making them like this from now on :)
ReplyDeleteI will be updating the calories on all my recipes, this one included! Glad you enjoyed them!
ReplyDeleteI made this and just baked them as per the recipe. They looked awesome and tasted pretty good however the pastry seemed thin and hard.
ReplyDeleteIs there a step I missed? I feel like the dough needs to be more poofy and less flat
Is there a different type for baking versus frying?
My Puerto Rican/Colombian esposo LOVED these (even baked), as did I and our two small kids. He wants them again on Thursday night when a friend is coming for dinner!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome Rebecca!! Love the Puerto Rican/Colombian combo! My daughter is Puerto Rican/Colombian/Italian and Czech! How's that for a combo!
ReplyDeleteDo you know the points plus value for this recipe?
ReplyDeleteCan we have the Points Plus value of these? :)
ReplyDeleteis it really only 3 points for 10 of these? I was full after eating 3 or 4 of them, although I did tend to use a bit more filling to make sure they were nice and filled. very tasty
ReplyDeleteJasta85: I think that it is 3 points per empanada; the recipe makes 10 empanadas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as someone who had a hard time making the spiral seal - I just used a fork to seal the edges, and it worked great - just not as pretty! :)
Where can I buy goya wrappers, cant find them in any grocery store in California
ReplyDeleteI find them here in NY. Not sure about California?
ReplyDeleteMmmm, super good! Would love to know what the damage is on the points+ system. I made my own shell and they were super yummy and easy.
ReplyDeleteThese were fantastic! My guests loved them :) I did add a little hot sauce to the meat mixture because we love spicy food.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned you like using crab also - do you use all the same ingredients and just replace the beef with crab?
Thanks, Gina :)
I made these tonight and they were delicious! I couldn't find the Goya discs in my local grocery store so I elected to make them from scratch using the recipe you posted a link to. First of all the recipe is super easy. It is a little time consuming to roll them out into the thin circles but completely worth it! I even used white whole wheat flour, light salted butter, and almond milk instead and they were still crunchy and tasty! I will definitely make these again! The recipe for the dough is large enough that I made all of the "discs" I could and froze what we didn't use for dinner tonight for next time!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I calculate 4 points for the wrap alone???? HMMM, too good to be true at 3...hahha.
ReplyDeleteAre the points still 3 for the "Points Plus" program? Really looking forward to trying these. :)
ReplyDeleteI made these yesterday with a ground turkey mixture, and it was so delicious!!! I was also wondering if the points are still 3 now... I also read someone's comment above, asking if 10 were 3 pts, and I do not think that is correct, and believe just 1= 3 pts, but since this is gina's recipe and site, I hope she can help u out there!
ReplyDeleteGina,
ReplyDeleteI would love to try these. The recipe says 2 teaspoons of filling - is that correct? That doesn't seem like much, so I wanted to be sure. Thanks!!
I made these with fat free cream cheese, sugar free guava paste, and about a half teaspoon of guava jelly. They are awesome!!! I live in Miami (and I'm a gringa), and have always wanted to make my own empanadas but figured it was too complicated. Thanks Gina!!!!!! LOVE LOVE this! I'm making picadillo filling next week!
ReplyDeleteAre these 3 points including the filling or not? Because when you look on the filling recipe...it says 4 points for that. Just curious if it is 3 points or 7 points total. Thanks for creating such AMAZING recipes!
ReplyDeleteI use phyllo dough...less fat than the discos ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Gina, I love your recipes and my husband too! I was born in argentina and I make empanadas all the time =)...
ReplyDeleteYou should try the "la saltena ", "la litorena" or "Blancaflor" dough instead and if you use this dough you dont need the egg neither the pam spray...im down in S Florida and I buy them at a latin supermarket.
Made these a few nights ago. They were delish!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much :)
For those having trouble finding the goya discs - I could not find them at any grocery stores either, I had to go to a small Mexican grocery store to find them.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, Gina...these were so good! I didn't have any problems finding the Goya discs in Maryland. They were on sale at my Giant grocery store today. The picadillo was enough for 3 batches of these. I froze the other 2 batches. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteThese are great...just watch the points. Those Goya discos are four points each! So just add points for the measured meat mixture to the wraps. I roll out the discos to make them bigger and then add about two tablespoons of the meat mixture; I count them at 6 PP each. I am going to try the dough from scratch or try my own next time.
ReplyDeleteI just made them using turkey leftovers!!! AWESOME!! -
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to make these. I love the fried empanadas but can't waste the points! ;) is it really 2 tsp? Seems like almost nothing. :(
ReplyDeleteI made these last night and they were delish. I will say that I was worried 2 tsp would not be enough filling, but to my surprise, they were just perfect. They were crispy as if they were fried and were satisfying. Will definitely makes these again and freeze half for a later day. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
ReplyDeleteI use pre made pie crusts , easy n flaky !! Mmm
ReplyDeletehow many calories are the empanadas (dough and filling included)? how many for one serving?
ReplyDeletehow many calories are the empanadas (dough and filling included)? how many for one serving?
ReplyDelete