Cherry Dessert Empanadas with Pre-made Pie Crust

Cherry hand pies for the summer season are a win win, which is why you must try my Cherry Empanadas Dessert with Pre-made Pie Crust! 

Dark sweet cherries are met with delicious spices and cooked down to make the perfect cherry filling. These sweet empanadas are balanced out with spicy jalapeno and honey chevre. To make this an easy recipe, we are using store-bought pie crust and using fresh cherries since it is indeed cherry season!

Want to throw a Tapas party? Check out these recipes to make it complete: Foolproof Chicken and Seafood Paella and White Sangria Mocktail

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What are Empanadas?

Empanadas are either a fried or baked turnover. They originate from Spain and different variations of the Empanada or hand pie can be found in different cultures. They can be made with a savory filling or you can enjoy sweet empanadas with different variations such as apple pie filling with cinnamon sugar, cherry filling, or a beef and raisin combo.

Simple ingredients needed for these dessert empanadas

• butter plus additional for greasing

• fresh cherries  

•  brown sugar

•  ground clove

• egg plus a splash of water for egg wash

• pre-made pie dough

• jalapeño and honey chèvre (can be found at trader joe’s) ,other goat cheese or cream cheese can be substituted

• all purpose flour (for preparing the empanada rounds)

How to prepare this easy cherry turnover recipe

Start with preheating the oven to 400 degrees. 

In a medium saucepan on low heat, add the butter. When it’s melted, add in the cherries and let it cook for 10-15 minutes or until the cherries start to cook down. 

Add the brown sugar and ground cloves. Let it cook down for an additional 2-5 minutes. Set it aside and let it cool down while you start to prepare the dough.

For the empanada dough: 

First, grease the sheet pan with butter. Remove the dough from the package and unroll. Place it on a floured surface. Cut out 8 circles per each dough (16 total) Add 1/2 teaspoon of the chèvre and 1 teaspoon of the cherry mixture.

Fold the circle over into a half moon and gently seal the edge of the dough with the tines of a fork. Place onto the baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush the top of each turnover with egg wash.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool down for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack or eating. 

Variations for these flaky cherry turnovers

To make this recipe easy, I use pre-made pie crusts.  I tested it out 2 different ways – one using frozen pie crust and then thawing it out in the fridge over night. The other using refrigerated pie crust. I preferred the refrigerated crust over the frozen. It was easier to unroll and kept its form better when I was cutting and assembling the empanadas.

Other dough that can be used are homemade, puff pastry dough, crescent rolls or biscuit dough. 

If you don’t want to make a homemade cherry pie filling, you can use a store bought cherry mixture. Also for variatiions to these cherry pie turnovers, you can switch the fillings to a peach pie filling or apple pie filling. 

Empanadas can be enjoyed with a savory filling. 

Other tips for making empanadas

To get the perfect circle, use a biscuit cutter that is 3 1/4 inches. To seal and close up the empanadas and have that beautiful edge, gently seal with a fork.

You want to have 2 large sheet pans ready. One with parchment paper and some flour on it for the assembled hand pies (as you make them) and one greased and ready for baking in the oven. The reason behind this is that you don’t want the dough to be sitting on the greased sheet yet until you are ready for baking. By all means, it wouldn’t mess it up if you did but you want the crust to not get soggy. Once you transfer all your empanadas to the greased baking sheet, that is when you will brush them with the egg wash.

Also another pointer is that I tested out greasing the pans 2 ways. One with olive oil and one with butter. Both turned out well so it will be a personal preference on how you want to grease your sheet pan. But either way, when removing them from the oven, let them cool for about 15-20 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (or eating 🙂 ) Remove them carefully from the sheet pan with a turner or a spatula so that they do not break.

Storing leftover Cherry Empanadas

Place any leftover empanadas into an airtight container. Store them in the fridge and to reheat, use a toaster oven or microwave. These can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature.

Why I created Cherry Dessert Empanadas

Spanish empanadas are one of my favorite tapas and what a great combo to use summer sweet cherries and spicy goat cheese.

Simple hand pies have a place in my heart. Dating back to the 80’s my favorite dessert was these sugary packaged pies that were filled with either apples or cherries oozing out, then topped with a sweet film over it.

Although sweet empanadas are normally considered dessert, you can enjoy them any time of the day and are a great appetizer the next time you are serving a tapas inspired menu!

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