Chocolate + Banana Empanadas

 

We celebrated New Year's Eve with one of my favorite combos, good friends and mexican food. Enchiladas, spanish rice, guacamole, mexican salad and my personal favorite, Empanadas for dessert. You can't go wrong with any combination of bananas and chocolate, right? They were so good I actually made them again on New Year's day. 

Chocolate + Banana Empanadas 

Ingredients

(makes 16 empanadas. Not enough in my opinion. Double it. One roll of phyllo dough, cut in half lengthwise, makes about 32 empanadas.)

8 sheets phyllo dough cut in half lengthwise

melted butter for brushing

2 tsp. sugar

1 tbs lemon juice

2 ripe bananas

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

confectioners sugar for dusting

cinnamon for dusting

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and finely dice the bananas and put in bowl. Add the sugar and lemon juice and stir well. Stir in the chocolate.

Working one at a time, lay out the rectangular sheets of phyllo in front of you and brush with butter.

Place approx. 2 tsp of filling in one corner of the dough. Fold over into a triangular shape to enlose the filling. Continue to fold the dough in a triangular shape until the phyllo dough is completely wrapped around the filling. Place on sprayed or non-stick cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining sheets of phyllo dough. 

Brush tops of triangles lightly with butter. Dust the triangles with confectioners' sugar and cinnamon. 

Bake in oven for 13-15 minutes or until pastries are lightly golden. Watch closely the first time to be sure they don't over cook. Remove from oven and serve warm.