Preparation Time: 4 hours (includes 3 hours of refrigerator time)

Cooking Time: 12 minutes

What You Need

For the Pastry Shell

• 2 – 8 oz. packages of softened cream cheese
• ¾ cup of softened unsalted butter
• 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

For the Filling

• ¼ cup finely chopped onion
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 4 to 5 slices bacon- cooked and crumbled (reserve at least 1 tblsp. of bacon drippings)
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 cups steamed fresh spinach
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 egg beaten

How to Prepare

The Pastry Shell

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth.  Gradually beat in the flour.  Knead the dough lightly by hand.  Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.

The Filling

In a medium skillet, heat up the reserved bacon drippings.  Add onion, garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the onion is tender, but not brown.  Stir in the crumbled bacon, the spinach, cottage cheese, pepper and nutmeg.  Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Pre-heat oven to 450*. 

On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry until it is 1/8 inch think.  Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out as many pastry circles as possible.  Place 1 teaspoon of the filling on ½ of each pastry circle.  Moisten the edges of the circle with the egg wash.  Fold the other ½ of the circle over the filling. Very gently, seal the edges of the empanadas with the tines of a fork (may need to flour the fork to prevent sticking).  Brush the empanadas with the egg.  Using the tines of the fork, prick a small vent into each empanada.  Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until they are golden.  Serve hot as an appetizer, or make larger ones and serve as a main course.

Enjoy!!