From Grab-and-Go to Gourmet: Three Levels of Baked Empanadas
Baked Empanadas are often remembered as a nostalgic pasalubong treat. However, they have grown to be more than just handy savory pastries. It’s evolved to be a versatile product that can fit different customers, occasions, and bakery concepts. Whether your Empanada customers are busy commuters, families looking for merienda, or restaurant diners seeking a premium meal; these different situations call for slightly different complexities and compositions of the pastry. From flavor to inclusions to texture, each variant is a different level to making the pastry, and each level best serves its delicious savory purpose in its own different way.
But the common thread behind every successful Empanada, is a dependable dough. And doughs rely on versatile, high-quality flours to give bakers flexibility to create the different levels of the pastry component of the Empanada; from sturdy exteriors to delicate, flaky gourmet creations.
PFMC shares three different levels of Empanada variants from simple to gourmet style- which can help level-up your Empanada offerings!
Level 1: The Grab-and-Go Bestseller
Designed for bakeries near school, churches, and public markets with high daily turnover and customers looking for a quick and compact grab and go meal option, this level of baked Empanada features an easy to make crust. The flour here needs to create a dependable dough that’s easy to mix, shape, and bake in large batches while maintaining its structure during transport and display. It’s to be combined with light amounts of fat like margarine, shortening, or butter, often thicker in proportion, creating a sturdy but still flavorful crust that holds up well for takeout and baon. It’s filled with familiar favorites like ground chicken, tuna, luncheon meat and cheese, egg, or other ready-to-use ingredients, and you have the perfect baon, merienda, or quick breakfast that’s affordable, filling, and easy to produce in volume.
Level 2: The Homemade Favorite
With this next level of Baked Empanada, the filling starts from scratch, with ground pork or beef gently cooked with onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, raisins, or your own signature seasoning blend. The filling is also bigger in proportion. The dough gets moderate amounts of fat, making it softer and more tender and flaky, calling for a flour that can handle gluten development to carry fat to produce moderate levels of tenderness and flakiness. More fat content in the Empanada dough creates a softer, more tender bite, making this the perfect choice for cafés or specialty restaurants with customers who might want to slow down to savor some mouthfuls; the kind of Empanada that deserves a short pause between bites.
Level 3: The Gourmet Showpiece
This is where the baked Empanada becomes a signature menu item. The dough is made through lamination techniques, with rich amounts of fat like premium butter, delivering a beautifully flaky crust with more layer separation. It is important to consider a flour’s protein content gluten strength to handle stretch to incorporate fat in lamination. This level of Empanada has filling that features premium fillings such as slow-braised beef, roasted chicken with mushrooms, creamy seafood, or artisan cheeses paired with roasted vegetables, fresh herbs, caramelized onions, or rich sauce reductions. Larger in size and beautifully presented, it’s an Empanada that could be enjoyed with a knife and fork, or simply savored one luxurious bite at a time in a fancy restaurant or café.
Every bakery serves a different market, and every customer has a different craving. Some value convenience, others seek homemade comfort, while many are willing to indulge in a premium pastry experience. Whatever style of baked Empanada you create, exceptional results always begin with exceptional flour.
The different levels of empanada call for a flour that can handle different levels of fat, dough compositions, and construction techniques. With PFMC Family All-Purpose Flour, bakeries, café’s, and restaurants have a quality and dependable product, with the right amounts of protein content and gluten strength to make every level of Empanada they desire come to life. What comes with the flour is not just supply of ingredients, but also a partnership that offers support, knowledge, and consistency to help every business grow and prosper.
Looking for a reliable flour partner for your Empanada business ventures? Connect with PFMC to learn more and explore a partnership over flour.
