We received the recipe below from one of our readers, Jane Cranthorne, who tells us that she has always made empanada “as a pie – I can’t remember where I got the recipe but I’ve been cooking it for 20 years or more”. Serves 6.

What you need (for the dough):
200g bread flour
50g butter
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp dried yeast
½ tsp salt
¼ pint warm water

What you need (for the filling):
1 green pepper, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
500g minced meat (pork or turkey work as well as beef)
150g chorizo or other spicy sausage, cut into chunks
50g raisins
400g can of chopped tomatoes
4 hardboiled eggs

How you do it:

Make up the dough and leave to rise until doubled in size.

Fry the pepper, chilli and onion until soft, adding the garlic partway through as it burns very easily and tastes bitter. Add the minced meat and the chorizo. Season to taste; add the raisins, tomatoes and roughly chopped eggs. Continue to simmer until the mixture is no longer watery.

Knead the dough briefly (it will be very soft), then roll out two-thirds and line a 25cm shallow metal dish, allowing a large overlap. Place the filling in the dish, then roll out the remaining dough, place it on top and dampen the upper edge. Fold the edges of the lower dough over the lid and seal it, pinching to gather up the extra.

Bake at 200ºC for 30-35 minutes, turning down slightly after the first 10 minutes. The crust can be a bit hard, so leave to stand for 5 minutes after cooking.