Wholegrain gluten free empanadas for little hands! By using a handful of wholesome ingredients, you will be well on your way to creating all sorts of filled pastries for your family!
I am not sure when I figured out that kids love almost anything in a pocket. It’s novel, it’s cute. It’s kind of genius.
Lately, my son has been totally obsessed with my Homemade Gluten Free Cereal Bars, and since we have been making them frequently, there have been many instances when I have had a touch of dough left.
Not one to waste any ingredients…I promptly put those scraps to use using my new dumpling presses (LOVE)!
With almost no effort, I get these adorable little hand pies perfect for little hands (and big ones too!). Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they are vegan too!
The crust is no fuss and wholegrain…and not too hard to work with!
We all go crazy for the low sugar berry jelly and dark chocolate combo!
Filling options for sweet gluten free empanadas
- Pie fillings – this cherry pie filling…swoon!
- Banana, chocolate, & sunbutter (or any preferred nut butter)
- Eggs, fresh pumpkin, sugar, and some pumpkin spice
- The apple pie filling looks drool worthy!
TEFF FLOUR nutritional highlights
This is one of my my very favorite gluten free flours to work with, and I have it in my pantry at all times!
It has a lovely nutty flavor that blends in well to loads of recipes, and it packs a nutrition punch!!
It’s known to naturally balance hormone levels, boost immunity, stimulate digestion, strengthen bones, promote cardiovascular health and aid weight loss.
- high in protein
- 29% of the DV iron in one serving
- plenty of fiber
- vast array of vitamins and minerals
Read here about some of the great reasons YOU should have some teff in YOUR pantry too!
Here are some additional recipes that include teff:
- Our favorite Soaked Teff Bread
- Cream of NOT Wheat Cereal is my creative gluten free version of Cream of Wheat!
- A traditionally fermented Ethiopian flat bread: Gluten Free Inerja
- Gluten Free Vegan Pizelles made with teff flour!!
Gluten Free Empanada Recipe:
If you try these vegan empanadas, be sure to come back and leave a comment and let us know what YOU filled them with!
Gluten Free Empanada
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free oat flour still need to test out an oat free version
- 1 cup teff flour or more oat or brown rice flour If you can do gluten, I imagine spelt, and whole wheat pastry flour would work great!
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup palm sugar or other granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons chia meal or flax meal
Wet:
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil or other oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Filling:
- Favorite jelly I used a low sugar from Trader Joes
- Dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the wet ingredients. Pour into the dry mix and blend until a soft dough is formed. You may add a couple tablespoons milk if it is necessary. I use my hands to knead it all together, a mixer works too.
- Divide the dough into two pieces.
- Using two pieces of parchment (or similar), roll the dough into a thin, pie crust thickness, about 1/8" or slightly less.
- Either using a circle biscuit cutter, or a knife, cut the dough into similar sized circles, rectangles, or squares, apx the size your palm (no exact science, just keep the pieces the same size.
- Fill half of one square/rectangle/dumpling, with a teaspoon or two of favorite jelly, and a few dark chocolate chips.
- Gently fold each piece in half and press on the edges to seal. I used my favorite dumpling/empañada makers for this task...it makes them TOO cute!! Alternately, you could place another piece of dough on top and press around the edges.
- Using a sturdy spatula or pastry scraper, gently lift off and place on a prepared cookie sheet. (Incidentally, those are two MUST HAVE kitchen gadgets...they scrape from stainless steel and cast iron like a charm, and help me clean more things than they should!)
- TIP: When I use the dumpling maker, I use some coconut oil spray on the press to keep it from sticking.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are JUST beginning to brown.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
I made this with regular flour instead of Oat flour. I also used mulberries for the filling. It ended up being a lot like a fig newton. Loved it! I even put the extra “shells” in the freezer, they thawed great!
I LOVE mulberries, what a great use of them!! Glad you liked them!
These look really good! Will definitely try to make these being a big fan of empaNadas (please fix name, no “ñ” in empanadas) I’ve been looking for a good gluten free version. Thanks Tessa!
Greetings! Do you think you could make these savory?
Definitely! Drop the sweetener, add some savory spices…use 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce. Why filling were you thinking?
Yum! We haven’t made hand pies in forever. Thanks for the inspiration and for linking up with Waste Not Want Not Wednesday!
Delicious vegan, gluten free empanadas, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop. pinning, tweeting and sharing with google plus
Wow! These look absolutely delicious!
Oooh, I love the look of that filling! I make raspberry chocolate chip hand pies sometimes too — so good. And lol on the kids liking anything in a pocket — I think I’m with them on that one 😉
I’ve been meaning to try teff flour but it’s so difficult to get where I live. I do have some teff grains so I might try grinding them down coz I really wanna try making these!
Krystal…it SO tasty..order some on iherb.com or amazon, you will definitely use it all…and I have more recipes that use it (I even use it in my all purpose often!). Teff is super tiny and will not mill well in my experience!
Scrumptious! Thank you for such a lovely gluten-free vegan recipe, I’m a sucker for these kinds of baked goods!
Wow Tessa, These look AMAZING!!! I’ll have to get some Teff flour 🙂
Teff is a must….and knowing how similar our tastebuds are Cassidy, you HAVE to get some!!
These are so fabulous Tessa! I love that they’re allergy-free and vegan! Perfection!
Thanks Rebecca!
Excellent. They look so yummy and best part, they are glutton free. Loved it.
Thanks Minnie!