Beef Empanadas

To begin, my partner preheated the oven to 350 degrees and prepared a baking tray with aluminum foil and set it aside. I heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Then, my partner added 1/2 pound of ground beef and cooked it until it was browned, breaking it apart with a rubber spatula for about 10 minutes. I added 1/2 a medium yellow onion which we had chopped and 1/2 a medium green pepper which we had also chopped. I cooked that until it was soft for about 5 more minutes. Then, my partner stirred in 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 cup of tomato sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. I lowered the heat to medium-low and let it simmer until the mixture thickened, which was about 15 minutes. My partner turned off the heat and set it aside until it was cool enough to handle. After that, we spooned about 2 large spoonfuls of the mixture into each empanada wrapper and folded it in half to form a half-moon. After that, we moistened the edges with water and crimped them down with a fork. After that, my partner lightly beat 1 egg and lightly spread that over the top side of the empanadas dough with a pastry brush. This encourages browning. We placed the empanadas on the foil lined sheet pan that we sprayed lightly with non-stick cooking spray. We baked these until they were crisp and brown, which took about 25 minutes. The texture was pretty crunchy because of the dough and it was spicy because of the peppers and spices. It looked pretty boring because of the shades of brown.