Empanadas

Doneness

Empanadas are done when the pastry is an even deep golden-brown with a glossy egg-washed sheen, the crimped seam is firm and sealed (no leaking filling), and the dough is cooked through and flaky rather than pale and doughy. The pre-cooked filling only needs to be heated through and steaming — tear one open and it should be hot to the centre with no cool pocket, the pastry shattering slightly under a finger-press. A pale, soft empanada needs more time or a heavier egg-wash; one darkening past golden is about to scorch (drop the heat for the sweet variants — see warnings). Because the filling goes in pre-cooked, doneness is about the pastry, not a raw-meat temperature.

Oil & seasoning

No oil spray needed — the egg-wash is what browns the pastry to a glossy golden in the air fryer. Brush beaten egg (or egg yolk + a splash of milk) over the tops before cooking; skip it and the crust comes out pale and matte. If you've run out of egg, a light mist of oil is a weaker substitute that gives some colour but not the bakery sheen.

Season with: Beef picadillo benchmark (the classic Latin-American empanada, the version most people search for): ground beef cooked down with onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, a little tomato, chopped green olives, raisins and hard-boiled egg — the sweet-savoury Argentine/Cuban picadillo. Fully cooked and cooled, then sealed in the dough and air-fried golden. Serve with chimichurri or aji., Chicken variant: shredded cooked chicken in a sofrito of onion, pepper, garlic, cumin and a little tomato (pollo guisado style). Lighter than beef; the same 375 °F / 12 min / flip at 6 with an egg-wash., Cheese variant: a melting cheese (mozzarella, Oaxaca, or queso blanco, sometimes with corn or spinach). Crimp the seam especially well — molten cheese will find any gap and leak. A vegetarian crowd-pleaser., Sweet guava variant: guava paste with cream cheese (or apple, dulce de leche, sweet potato) for a dessert empanada. Drop the temperature to 350 °F / about 10 min — the surface sugars and the egg-wash scorch above 360 °F before the pastry sets. Dust with cinnamon-sugar after the pull..

Watch out for

• !The filling must be fully cooked and cooled before it goes in the dough. Empanadas bake just long enough to crisp the pastry and heat the filling through — not long enough to cook a raw-meat filling to a safe temperature. Cook the picadillo, chicken or sofrito first, cool it (warm filling steams the dough soft and makes it tear), then assemble. This is the single most common from-scratch empanada mistake.
• !Brush the tops with egg-wash — the air fryer won't brown bare pastry. Unlike a deep-fryer, the air fryer's dry convection leaves an un-washed empanada pale and matte even when it's cooked through. A beaten-egg (or yolk-and-milk) wash is what gives the bakery-golden, glossy crust. Re-brush at the flip for an even colour.
• !Don't overfill, and seal the crimp firmly. 1-2 tablespoons of filling per disc is plenty; an overstuffed empanada bursts at the seam during the cook, and the leaked filling scorches onto the basket while the empanada goes hollow. Crimp with a fork or a folded repulgue and press out trapped air so the seam holds.
• !Sweet / fruit fillings need a lower temperature. Guava, dulce de leche, apple and sweet-potato empanadas have surface sugars (and the egg-wash sheen) that scorch to bitter-black above about 360 °F before the pastry sets — drop to 350 °F / ~10 min for the sweet variants. Savoury beef, chicken and cheese empanadas handle the full 375 °F.
• !Single-layer with space, and flip with tongs — not a basket shake. Stacked or touching empanadas steam each other, leaving pale, soft contact faces. And empanadas filled with juicy picadillo or molten cheese split at the seam if jostled — turn each one gently with tongs at the 6-minute mark rather than shaking the basket.