Taco Empanadas

I saw this originally on Down Home with The Neely's on Food Network. I remembered that I had some taco meat in the freezer and viola! Dinner in a pinch! I'm including only the empanada part, you can use whatever meat mixture you'd like best. I left out the corn kernels from mine and they were still really good! I even had enough to freeze for snacks later!


Cornbread Dough:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 cups fine cornmeal
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 cup cold butter, cut in small cubes
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons warm water
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons whole milk
* 1 tablespoons dehydrated lemon peel
* 1 cup roughly chopped corn kernels
* Water, for sealing
* Special equipment: 5-inch round cookie cutter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar and cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and mix in the water, lemon juice, milk, lemon peel and corn. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine to form a soft and pliable dough. Knead the dough until fully mixed. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 5-inch rounds.

Fill each round with 1 to 2 tablespoons of meat filling. Fold the dough in half and dab the edges with water to seal. There should be a 1/2-inch of dough to work with to form the seal. For a tight seal, press with the tines of a fork all around the edge of the empanada. Transfer the empanadas to a lightly buttered baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.