Caramel Apple Empanadas {With Cajeta or Dulce de Leche}

Thanks for sharing!

These caramel apple empanadas are easier to make than you’d think and so good.  Try eating one still warm from the oven and you are sure to be hooked!

A simple but flaky pastry hides a sweet secret.  These empanadas are filled with a caramel apple filling.  We made our filling with homemade cajeta, but dulche de leche or caramel sauce if you’d like.

It’s a lot like an apple hand pie and they are fabulous.  Of course a scoop of ice cream and drizzle of caramel makes them even better!

Would you like to hear how these caramel apple empanadas came to be? I knew you would!

Little dude and I were busy making homemade cajeta from Ol’ McGrandpa’s goat milk. We were supposed to be going to MiMi and Pops’ that night for family dinner.

So we called to say we’d bring cajeta and apple slices for dessert. I know, how virtuous of us to do fruit slices for dessert!  

But in the background my littlest sister was requesting empanadas instead.

Now when you are the baby of six kids, it is easy to be quite the princess.  So her request is my command…     with restrictions!

I told her I’d make them if she came to help. Good deal, right?

To my surprise, she took me up on it. So I whipped up some dough and waited for her to arrive.

This cream cheese dough is probably not a traditional dough at all, but I’ve used similar for other treats, like kolacky, with delicious flaky results. Since I had a drawer full of cream cheese in the refrigerator it seemed like the way to go!

When my sister arrived, she and little dude went to work chopping apples for the filling. Don’t worry, he was using a miniature butter knife.

Once the apples were soft we played trucks and tractors until the filling had a chance to cool. Then the three of us went to work on assembling the empanadas.

Poor Chloe didn’t get much of a chance to make them as little dude had to keep showing her proper technique! It’s a good thing we have him around to teach us these things!

I tell you what, the smell of these gems coming out of the oven is intoxicating. We had to sample one fresh and warm from the oven.

That is how these kind of things are always best. We were good though and packaged the rest up to share with the family.

MiMi made some homemade vanilla ice cream for us as well. So we each had an empanada  (or two!) And a scoop of ice cream drizzled with cajeta. It was heavenly!

I hope you have enjoyed our celebration of dairy month as much as we have. What recipe are you going to try first?

Love tasty recipes? I do too! Follow me on Pinterest for more delicious ideas!

More great dairy centric recipes:
No Bake Oreo Cream Pie by Tip Garden
Creme Anglaise (‘Real Custard’) by Caroline’s Cooking
Buttermilk Parmesan Pork Chops by Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids

Thanks for sharing!