Today we have a recipe to help you make tasty little turnovers (or empanadas) for your baby – a wonderful treat for babies who are already somewhat accomplished with finger foods!
This recipe isn’t complicated, but it does involve some chilling time, so it’s a dish you need to plan ahead for. We recommend making these in bulk, because you can easily freeze some before baking them, then just pop them into the oven as required.
Although our turnovers contain sweet potato, you can use other veggies your baby likes – pumpkin, for example, or carrot. You can even mix different veggies together, or add chopped cooked meats, and experiment to come up with all sorts of different flavours!
To Make Baby’s Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Turnovers You Will Need…
FOR THE DOUGH…
6 oz (1 1/2 cups) whole-wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil
around 4 fl oz (1/2 cup) warm water
FOR THE FILLING…
1 large sweet potato
2 fl oz milk (use breastmilk/formula if you prefer)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
pinch grated nutmeg
2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
Either peel, dice and steam the sweet potato or bake it in the oven until tender.
Mash the sweet potato with the milk, butter, nutmeg and cheese.
Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 375 deg F, 180 deg C.
Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Place all the dough ingredients into a food processor and mix until thoroughly combined.
The mixture should form a ball – you may need to add a little more water to make the ball form properly.
Wrap the dough in food-safe plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least three hours (or just leave it overnight).
When the dough has chilled, roll it out as thinly as possible.
Cut out circles – you can use a biscuit cutter or even an upturned cup. Use a smaller cup/cutter to make smaller turnovers.
Place a blob of the sweet potato mixture into the middle of the circle (the amount you need depends on how large you cut the circles), then fold over so that the dough is now in a semi-circle.
Using your fingers, seal the edges together – you can then press a fork all the way around the edges to make them look pretty!
Keep going until you’ve used up all your dough and filling mixture.
Spray the tops of the turnovers with a little vegetable/canola oil.
Place on the greased baking tray and cook in the oven for 20 to 30 mins, until the edges begin to turn golden.
Cool and serve.
These are tasty as they are, but our little ones think they’re even yummier served with applesauce for dipping!