These empanadas have no dough in the usual sense. The shell is boiled ripe plantain, mashed and bound with an egg and a quarter cup of flour, wrapped around cheese and fried until golden.
Sweet on the outside, salty and molten inside. They are eaten hot, and they are worth the hour they take.
How long this actually takes
Worth being straight about, because the recipe used to claim twenty minutes and that was never possible.
- Boiling the plantains — about 25 minutes, until they give completely under a fork.
- Cooling and mashing — the purée has to be cool before the egg goes in, or it scrambles.
- Chilling — 20 minutes in the fridge, and this one is not optional.
- Shaping and frying — twelve empanadas, in batches, so another 20 minutes or so.
Call it an hour and a quarter. Most of it is waiting rather than working, and the plantains can be boiled and mashed well in advance.
The fridge is doing the work
Step 4 puts the dough in the refrigerator for twenty minutes without saying why, and it is the step people skip.
This dough is mashed fruit held together by one egg and a small amount of flour. Warm, it has the consistency of thick purée and there is no shaping it into anything. Cold, it firms up enough to roll into balls, flatten into discs and fold around a filling.
If it is still too soft after twenty minutes, give it longer. What you must not do is add flour until it behaves: every spoonful makes the finished empanada heavier and tastes less of plantain, which is the only reason to make these rather than ordinary empanadas.
Wet hands are the answer to stickiness. They always are with plantain.
Let the purée cool before the egg
Step 2 ends with "let it cool" and step 3 adds the egg. That order matters.
Egg beaten into hot plantain purée cooks on contact and you get threads of scrambled egg through the dough instead of a binder holding it together. Warm is fine; hot is not.
Ripe means dark
The plantains need dark, mostly black skin. This comes up in every plantain recipe on this site and it matters more here than in most.
The entire appeal of these empanadas is sweet shell against salty molten cheese. A yellow-firm plantain has not converted its starch to sugar yet: it mashes into something pasty rather than smooth, and the finished empanada tastes bland and slightly floury.
Black skin looks like the plantain has gone off. It has not. That is when it is ready.
Sealing, and frying
Press the edge firmly all the way round after folding. Cheese that escapes goes straight into the oil, burns, and takes the empanada's filling with it.
Be modest with the amount. A tablespoon of shredded cheese in the middle of a disc is plenty, and a dozen well-sealed empanadas beat six overfilled ones and six disasters.
They are fried, not sautéed, over medium heat. Too hot and the sugary outside darkens before the cheese has melted.
Sugar on top, or not
The last step offers a dusting of sugar and it is genuinely optional. With it they read as a dessert or an afternoon sweet; without it they sit more comfortably next to a coffee or as a starter.
Either way, eat them hot. The cheese sets as they cool and the shell loses its crispness within a few minutes.
More plantain and cheese
- Aborrajados — the same pairing, fried twice and battered.
- Ripe plantain arepas — the griddled version.
- Empanadas — the corn dough ones, savoury.
Plantain Empanadas FAQ
Around an hour and a quarter. Boiling four plantains takes about twenty-five minutes, they need to cool before the egg goes in, the dough chills for another twenty, and then twelve empanadas have to be shaped and fried in batches. It is not a twenty-minute recipe, whatever the old timing said.
Because it is almost entirely mashed plantain, held together by one egg and a quarter cup of flour, and warm it is far too soft to shape. Twenty minutes in the fridge firms it enough to roll into balls and flatten. Skip it and you will be unable to form anything.
No. Extra flour makes the empanadas heavy and dulls the plantain flavour, which is the whole point of them. Chill the dough longer and wet your hands before shaping. Damp palms stop it sticking without changing what is in it.
Well ripened, skin dark or black. The sweetness of the plantain against the salty melted cheese is the entire idea, and a yellow-firm plantain is still starchy: it will mash badly and taste of very little. If yours are not there yet, wait a few days.
Mozzarella is what the recipe calls for and it melts well and stretches. Queso costeño is more traditional and considerably saltier, which suits a very sweet plantain better. Anything mild that melts will do; avoid strong aged cheeses, which fight the fruit.
The seam was not pressed hard enough, or there was too much cheese in it. Fold the disc over and press the whole edge firmly, all the way round. A modest amount of cheese sealed properly beats a generous amount that ends up in the pan.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 ripe plantains (well ripened, with dark skin: the sweetness is the point)
- 8 cups water (for boiling)
- 1 egg (binds the dough)
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella (or any mild cheese that melts; queso costeño is more traditional and saltier)
- Oil, for frying
- 1 tablespoon sugar (for dusting at the end, optional)
- Salt, to taste (for the cooking water)
Notas
Instructions
- Wash the plantains and cut them in half. Put them in a pot of water with a little salt and bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook until soft.
- Once cooked, take off the peel and mash the flesh with a fork until you have a purée. Let it cool.
- Add the egg, the flour and the vanilla extract, and mix well.
- Put the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. This is what makes it firm enough to shape.
- Divide the dough into 12 balls, then flatten each one into a round disc.
- Put cheese on each disc, fold it in half, and press the edge firmly so it seals.
- Fry them on both sides until golden, without letting them burn.
- Drain on absorbent paper and dust with sugar if you like.
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