A Guest Post by Little Crumb - Banana Empanadas

Little Crumb is my youngest daughter.  Not only is she my biggest helper in the kitchen and the sounding board for my blog, but she makes a mean Banana Empanada.  I thought it was time for her to do a guest post for me.  She was so proud to make the empanadas, taking photos as she went along, and then she wrote up the text. All I did was help her attach some links and edit her photos.  Enjoy!

I have been making banana empanadas for quite a while now. It all happened when I was watching TV early in the morning, I had skipped through the channels and then I came upon the Food Network. As I was watching Quick Fix the host, Robin Miller, was making banana empanadas, which sounded really good. So I ran into my moms bedroom, woke her up and told her that I wanted to bake something for her. But we needed to get the ingredients so we went to the grocery store. After that it was time to start baking.

This recipe is so easy to make that a cave man could do it. As I waited for it to bake in the oven, it smelled so good I was drooling. We could hardly wait for them to cool, and one bite after another, soon all that was left were some crumbs!

Just because I am young it doesn’t mean that I don’t have mad skills in the kitchen. When I am helping my mom in the kitchen it makes me feel like a real chef, and that I mean something to the dish. I really love to cook but the worst part in the whole process is probably waiting for it to bake or cleaning up after words. 

I had a lot of fun doing this guest post for my mom.  I hope she will invite me to do another one soon, or I might have to start my own blog!

Banana Empanadas

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• cooking spray (Little Crumb uses a Silpat)
• 1 large banana, sliced
• 3 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar
• additional cinnamon sugar or raw sugar for sprinkling.
• 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust
• Ice cream or powdered sugar, if desired

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray or a Silpat.  
3. In a large bowl, combine bananas, brown sugar and cinnamon sugar. Mix well and set aside.  
4. Unroll pie crust onto a flat surface.  
5. Using a ring mold, make circles in the dough. 
6. Put the banana mixture on the pie dough and fold it over to make a moon shape.  
7. Pinch around the edges to seal (Little Crumb uses a fork).
8. Transfer the empanadas to the prepared baking sheet and make slits in the top of each to allow steam to escape.
9. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon sugar, or raw sugar - your choice.
10. Place the baking sheet into the preheated oven and bake until crust is golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
11. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the empanadas on a platter.
12. Serve with ice cream or sprinkle with powdered sugar, if using. 

Recipe makes 12 empanadas and was adapted by Ashleigh from one by Robin Miller.