Empanadas de Camote are a South Texas Tradition
Everybody has one of those recipes that gets passed around the community. Empanadas de Camote, or Sweet Potato Turnovers is just that recipe in our San Manuel ranch community.
Other traditional fillings such as pumpkin are popular, and there is a practical reason. Our climate is hot, and out on the old timey ranches, delicate fruits such as blackberries or peaches were hard to grow, and even harder to buy. Sweets were usually made with ingredients that could be kept at room temperature for a long period of time. Our average summer temp is around 95°F (35°C) so hardy tubers like sweet potatoes, or dry gourd type squashes like pumpkins were always around for making into a dessert.
I even have a few old recipes for candy made out of pinto beans. Anything starchy could be converted into a dessert, as long as you had a sack of sugar in the pantry.
Now days, we make Empanadas de Camote because we really love their tender crust and deeply spicy filling.
PrintEmpanadas de Camote (Sweet Potato Turnovers)
- Yield: 30 1x
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups shortening (360gr)
- 4 cups flour (500gr)
- ¼ cup sugar (200gr)
- 1 tsp. salt (4gr)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup water (120ml)
- 1 tbsp. vinegar (15ml)
- 2 lbs sweet potatoes (1kg)
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 1/2–1 cup sugar, to taste (100-200gr)
Instructions
- For the dough: Knead the shortening into the flour, sugar and salt with your hands. Add in egg, water, and vinegar, mixing well. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and chill for one hour.
- Meanwhile, wash sweet potatoes well, and cut into large chunks. Boil sweet potatoes with the cinnamon until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain water from pot. Remove cinnamon sticks.
- After the sweet potatoes have cooked, peel, then puree with an electric hand mixer. Add in sugar, as desired.
- Heat your oven to 350°F (176°C). Form the dough into 30 balls. Using a tortilla press or a rolling pin, flatten the dough into circles.
- Fill with a spoonful of mashed sweet potatoes. Do not overfill. Fold dough over the filling to form a half circle. Pinch edges together. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- When all empanadas are formed, crimp edges where empanadas is sealed with a fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned.
I wanna try this recipe but why add vinegar to dough?
Hi, I am not sure what the vinegar does, but there are traditional recipes for crusts that contain vinegar. Sometimes it ends up pickling the egg in the crust as well, and the egg seems to “cook” in tiny strands, which looks weird, but isn’t so noticeable when you eat it. However, you will notice that the crust is very very tender. Try it, they are not difficult to make.thanks for writing! xo
If you are using all purpose flour yes,you can add vinegar to the mixture of dough to break the gluten in all purpose flour but the smell of vinegar still their in your dough.when your doing pastry you need to use pastry flour.because empanada flour is belong to pastry.if you want a perfect empanada use pastry flour.note: all purpose flour is not a pastry flour.
That is an excellent idea! I will try that too!
Made them and love the way they came out
I am so glad! Its my grandmother’s recipe, glad you enjoyed them!
MG
Thank you for this! In talking to my mother-in-law about family memories she mentioned sweet potato empanadas that were served with dinner not a dessert for her grandmother form eastern Mexico she settled in San Antonio. I’m just trying to recreate a memory for her with very little info!
Thank you for your sweet note Sharon! I hope these empanadas are what you remember! Saludos!
MG
As a resident of Falfurrias and a family friend , for many years Jaime’s Mother Mrs. DV “WaWa” Garcia Guerra would send me a box full of delicious empanadas before the holidays. How I miss that. Unfortunately, I never asked her for the recipe. However, she did give me her recipe for a favorite chili petin hot sauce of Governor John Connolly (my relative) that she frequently made for us. Melissa, I always look forward to meals she prepared and I enjoy your recipes/blog too!
Thanks Ike! Of course, you know I’m related to WaWa’s family! They live just down the road from us, and we see them at church. I will see if I can track down the recipe, keep you eyes on the blog, they may appear soon! xo
I have canned sweet potato how much do I use?
Hi! Sorry, I don’t really have the answer to that question. Canned sweet potatoes have more liquid in them. I would simply use the amount that would fill a 2 qt. casserole, and then continue with the rest of the recipe. If the canned sweet potatoes already have sugar,then I would skip the maple syrup. Apologies! I will look into adding that detail. Happy Holidays!
I remember my mother making the empanadas. When little she would use anise do u use anise in your dough gives it a good taste and smell when cooking and eating
Hi Diana! That sounds amazing! What kind of filling did she use? Interested…
A question was asked if canned sweet potatoes could be used. Your answer stated that if canned sweet potatoes used to skip adding maple syrup in mix. Was maple syrup suppose to be an. ingredient in your recipe above? I’m confused.
Hi, I am looking back over the empanada recipe, and probably my answer was misguided? I have a sweet potato casserole recipe that uses maple syrup, but empanadas de camote never have maple syrup. I wonder what I was thinking? So sorry for the confusion. Thanks for writing, and email me directly if I can further fix my confusing answers! melissa@melissaguerra.com
Thanks in the misguided confirmation, for a minute thought I had misread the recipe.