Name: Baked Beef Empanadas with Olives
Prep time: 1 h 40 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 2 h 5 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tsp salt; 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed; 6 tbsp cold lard (or shortening), cubed; 1 egg; ¾ cup ice water, plus more as needed; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1 lb ground beef; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp smoked paprika; ½ tsp dried oregano; ¼ tsp cayenne; ¼ cup tomato paste dissolved in ¼ cup water — see Notes; ½ cup green olives, chopped; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water, for the wash

Baked Beef Empanadas with Olives

A crimped, hand-sized turnover of a lard-butter pastry around cumin-spiced ground beef, green olives, and hard-boiled egg.

Serves

Prep

40 min (plus 1 hr chill)

Cook

25 min

Written

August 5, 2026

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed

6 tbsp cold lard (or shortening), cubed

1 egg

¾ cup ice water, plus more as needed

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb ground beef

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp cayenne

¼ cup tomato paste dissolved in ¼ cup water — see Notes

½ cup green olives, chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water, for the wash

Method

Pulse the flour and salt in a food processor, then add the butter and lard and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.

Whisk the egg into the ice water, drizzle it in, and pulse just until the dough clumps when pinched. Divide in two, flatten into disks, wrap, and chill at least 1 hour.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion until soft, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.

Add the beef and brown, breaking it up, until no pink remains.

Stir in the cumin, paprika, oregano, and cayenne and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, then add the dissolved tomato paste and simmer until the mixture is thick and holds together, not wet, 5 to 7 minutes.

Off the heat, stir in the olives and hard-boiled eggs; season with salt and let cool completely.

Roll each dough disk out thin, about as thick as a coin, and cut into 5-inch rounds, gathering and rerolling scraps.

Spoon 2 tablespoons of cooled filling onto one half of each round, leaving a bare border, fold over, and crimp the edge shut with a fork.

Arrange on parchment-lined sheets, brush with the egg wash, and chill 15 minutes while the oven heats to 400°F.

Bake until deeply golden and the crimped edges are firm, 22 to 25 minutes.

Notes

Cook the filling wetter than it looks like it should be, then let it cool — it firms up as it sits, and a filling that seems dry going in is what actually leaks and blows out a seam in the oven. Cold filling into cold dough is the other half of that insurance.

Skip the eggs if you’d rather keep it simple, but the olives are worth defending — their brine is what keeps a beef-and-cumin filling from tasting flat. These freeze well raw: crimp, freeze on a sheet until solid, then bag them and bake straight from frozen, adding about 8 minutes.