100% Rye Wild Yeast Dough for Empanadas

Culinary Curiosity Thursday

Painting and Pastry Camp 2016

Rye Dough for Empanadas

Makes 602 grams dough
enough for 7 empanadas
    The flavor of this dough is outstanding, and it holds up well for a rich filling. Rye isn’t elastic, so the usual turning of edges won’t work, but it just creates the opportunity to cut and emboss and be otherwise creative with the crust edges.

Evening Before Ingredients
2 ½  cups / 184 grams light rye flour
½ cup potato starch/ 95 grams
½  cup firm levain starter/ 106 grams
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
measure and then grind 13 grams
½ cup/ 1 stick / 113.4 grams unsalted butter
½ cup water / 125 ml

Morning Ingredients
2 teaspoons high mineral sugar
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

Evening Instructions
In the food processor combine rye flour, potato starch, flaxseed and spin.
Crumble in firm levain, and spin
Add butter and pulse
Add water while machine is running just until it forms into a ball.
Cover and ferment overnight at room temperature.

​Morning Instructions
Should smell and taste slightly fermented
Sprinkle on salt and sugar and mix in well
Let dough rise until doubled in a warm place about 1 ½ hour
Divide into 86 gram pieces and roll each piece of dough into a 6 inch disk
Layer between parchment papers and chill until ready to fill.

Use ¼ cup filling per Empanadas
Raisins, green olives, garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes, sausage, paprika, sausage, cumin

Children always expand my ways of looking at a pastry process because they are open and less inhibited.
I liked the ways they layered dough forms on top of each other. With the dark rye, the biscuits feel medieval to me.

Pâte sablée cookies 

   Third day of Painting and Pastry Camp. Wednesdays are over the hump day, everyone is getting used the routine, they’re still excited but getting a little tired, or at least I am. Today we worked on making little biscuits from the leftover Pâte sablée dough. It’s a nice dough to roll, cut and shape and they came up with some unique creations.
    Children always expand my ways of looking at a process because they are open and less inhibited. I liked the ways that they layered forms on top of eachother. With the dark rye dough the biscuits feel medieval to me.
​    They were yummy to eat, one little girl told me in detail how much she liked them and why---Not too sweet, the sandy rough feel of some rye flour still attached, and the spices, she thought the spices, cardamom and sweet spice were just right.

empanada dough 's delicious

   In the afternoon we made savory empanadas with the sourdough rye dough. I love this dough, and feel proud of how well it works--- they said it couldn’t be done.
All of the vegetables and herbs were right from our garden, roasted in the oven before being used as a filling.
​    While the empanadas dough is delicious baked up, it doesn’t work like a wheat dough, the difference is that it’s not elastic, but more like working with clay. I’ve worked quite a bit with clay so realized that it’s plenty moldable, especially if you work with it as you would slabs.
   Tomorrow we move on to strudel. Yes, 100% rye strudel, they said it couldn’t be done! Well, only partially; it’ll never roll thin enough to let the light through, but it'll roll amazingly thin for rye, and Apple strudel is on its way!   ​