I Made Hogwarts Sorting Hat Empanadas
This idea was the brainchild between my late-night Pinterest browsing – “OOOO what if I made these witch hat calzones but make them empanadas instead” – and my boyfriend’s off-the-wall ideas – “What if you made them Harry Potter inspired, like all the houses!”
…and so these were born. I’m pretty proud of these despite literally none of these being my recipes. But I wanted to make it easier on myself this week because I was gonna make 4 different empanada fillings, 4 different sauces, and handmade dough…so please give me a pass here.
Rough process pictures of the shaping below – see my Instagram highlight at @pokethedough for video instructions!
Click the links below for the recipes for each component! I’ve also noted the changes I made. You can watch the process and how to form the empanadas on my Instagram story highlight at @pokethedough
Basic Empanada Dough:
https://www.laylita.com/recipes/how-to-make-empanada-dough/
The recipe doesn’t detail what the butter and flour should look like after it’s been pulsed, but I should’ve followed my instinct on this one. For a flaky empanada, pulse the flour and butter briefly until there are visible pea-sized pieces of butter interspersed throughout. I didn’t do that and blended it all the way until the flour and butter were completely combined, creating a stiff and almost biscuit-like texture – don’t do this.
I doubled this recipe!
Gryffindor Empanadas:
Pumpkin filling:
http://www.browniebites.net/pumpkin-pasties-from-harry-potter/
I added 3 tbsp of cream cheese at the end to lighten the color up! I also didn’t halve or double this recipe.
Cranberry-raspberry sauce:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/130638/cranberry-raspberry-dessert-sauce/
I halved this recipe!
Hufflepuff Empanadas:
Traditional beef filling:
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/argentinian-beef-empanadas
I halved this recipe!
Charred yellow pepper romesco:
https://www.taketwotapas.com/yellow-pepper-almond-romesco-sauce/
I love the char on the yellow peppers, but blending them up didn’t leave a bright yellow color as I wanted, so I added yellow food coloring to get the desired effect. Sliced almonds also work fine, I used them as I couldn’t find whole ones at the time. I also halved this recipe as well.
Ravenclaw Empanadas:
Blueberry goat cheese filling:
https://www.jocooks.com/baking/pastries/blueberry-goat-cheese-empanadas/
I couldn’t think of a way to get that classic deep blue color for Ravenclaw, so I used blueberry to at least have a little relevancy (and edited the photo as a result, just know the end result will be purple). The saving grace is the caramel I made to accompany this; it’s as close to food bronze as I could get. I also halved this recipe!
Meyer lemon caramel sauce:
http://www.tantemarie.com/recipes/margarets-meyer-lemon-caramel-sundae/
This caramel sauce is freaking DELICIOUS guys; I want to put this on everything. I couldn’t find Meyer lemons at my local grocery store so I used half a lemon and half an orange instead to get 1/4 cup of juice needed for the recipe. I did not double or halve this recipe. Also a tip: I didn’t know this because of my inexperience, but you should add the heavy cream, butter, and juice slowly. If the caramel seizes anyway and creates a clump of caramel, just be patient and keep stirring over low heat to dissolve the solid caramel.
Slytherin Empanadas:
Spinach filling:
https://myrecipeconfessions.com/entree/argentine-spinach-empanadas/
I halved this recipe! Also omitted the parm and it was still very good.
Fresh herb chimichurri:
https://www.shugarysweets.com/chimichurri/
I halved this recipe! This and the spinach filling was one of my favorite flavor combos – so gooood. I also couldn’t find fresh oregano so I used dried instead: 1 tbsp fresh to 1 tsp dried.