Empanadas

Taken from allrecipes

Makes 12

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup fruit preserves

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1.  DAY BEFORE: Cream butter and cream cheese together until smoothly blended. Beat in the flour. Shape dough into a smooth ball, wrap in foil or cling wrap, and refrigerate overnight or up to a week.

2.  AT BAKING TIME: Remove dough from refrigerator 30 minutes before using. Start heating oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

3.  Roll chilled dough thin. Cut with 3 or 4 inch round cookie cutter. Place small spoonful of jam in center of each round, moisten edges with water.

4.  Fold round over and press edges together. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately roll in sugar mixed with cinnamon (traditional) OR in confectioners' sugar if preferred.

*I've always wanted a tortilla press, so that was what I chose as my souvenir on a recent trip south of the border.  We tried it out making empanadas--next time I'll have to double this recipe.  Jeff and Jacob didn't want to share!  I did have a bit of trouble with the dough sticking to the press.  Cooking spray helps, but the best thing I found to do was place a piece of plastic wrap on either side of the dough.  Then the dough was easy to peel off the wrap.  Of course, you can also just roll out the dough as directed above.

We made 2 kinds; six using cherry pie filling and six more using one fresh sliced apple, a dab of butter, 2 teaspoons brown sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon.  Both were delicious, but the apples were our favorite.  It was a little difficult to get all the fruit pressed inside the dough, but it didn't seem to hurt to have it spill out a little bit (especially with the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper).  The 1/3 cup sugar and 1 t cinnamon to roll the empanadas in would have been enough for double the recipe.